17 December 2014
Jersey’s Planning and Building Services department has announced changes to fees for 2015.
The planning fee for changing the use of a building from a number of buildings to a single building is being halved and the fee for changing the use of a building to a non-residential use is being capped.
In addition, the department will no longer charge a fee for applications to provide access or other facilities for disabled people.
These changes are on top of those introduced for 2014 which included:
- a cap on large-scale development fees
- a saving on outline planning applications, where developers only pay 25 per cent of the standard charge up front
- consolidation of four material alteration fees into one single lower fee.
Other planning and building fees are increasing by approximately 2.5 per cent from 12 January 2015, in line with the States-approved Medium Term Financial Plan.
Planning performance
Over the last 12 months the department has also improved its planning decision performance: 98 per cent of minor planning applications were dealt with in eight weeks or fewer, and 84 per cent of major applications decided within 13 weeks (1 December 2014 – 30 November 2014).
The Environment Department’s Director of Development Control, Peter Le Gresley said “In response to feedback from our customers, we introduced a number of positive changes in 2014, and these amendments to our fee structure for 2015 will provide further cost reductions.
“Among the other changes we put in place were measures to improve the turnaround for planning decisions. These have worked well and, to date, we’ve exceeded our targets.”
gov.je