What planning actually costs in Horsham in 2026

Planning fees are two different things stacked on each other: national statutory fees, which are the same everywhere in England, and local pre-application charges, which each council sets itself. Here are both, as they stand for Horsham in 2026.

These are the council’s fees only. They do not include drawings, a structural engineer, a party wall surveyor or building control.

National statutory fees

Set nationally, current from 1 April 2026.

Application	Fee
Householder: extension or alteration to a single house	£548
Outbuildings, gates, fences or walls within the curtilage	£272
Prior approval: larger home extension	£249
Prior approval: additional storeys	£249
Lawful development certificate (proposed)	Half the full application fee

A householder application has a statutory determination period of eight weeks from validation. Validation is not instant: if anything is missing the clock does not start, so allow one to two weeks on top.

Fees are due to change on 8 December 2026

The government has laid draft regulations before Parliament to raise national planning fees from 8 December 2026. They are a draft: they come into force only if both Houses approve them, and the figures could still change before then. The draft that is currently before Parliament was laid on 1 September 2026, replacing one laid in July.

As drafted, the changes that matter to a householder are:

Application	Proposed fee from 8 December 2026
Householder: extension or alteration to a single house	£575 (now £548)
Outbuildings, gates, fences or walls within the curtilage	£285 (now £272)
Prior approval: larger home extension	£310 (now £249)
Prior approval: additional storeys	£310 (now £249)
Prior approvals that are currently free	£310 (a new fee)
Discharge of conditions on a householder permission	£125
Non-material amendment to a householder permission	£53

The exemption for work to give a disabled person access to their home, or facilities for their safety, health or comfort, is left in place. The government has also said councils should eventually be able to set their own fees up to 30% above the national rate where their costs justify it. That would need further regulations, separate from these.

If your application is ready, the date matters. The draft says the new fees do not apply to any application made before 8 December 2026. A householder application submitted and paid for before then would be charged £548, not £575. That is not a reason to rush incomplete drawings in (an application the council cannot validate goes nowhere), but if yours is ready in November, there is no reason to hold it back.

Horsham District Council’s own pre-application fees

These are the council’s charges for advice before you apply. They are optional, and on anything uncertain they are the best value on this page.

Service	Fee (inc VAT)	Response
Do I need planning permission?	£65	28 days
Extensions and alterations to houses and flats	£105	28 days
Prior approvals	£230	42 days
One to two residential units	£260	42 days

The logic is straightforward. If you are not sure whether your project needs permission, £65 answers it in writing. If you know it needs permission but not what the council will accept, £105 gets you a case officer’s view before you commission detailed drawings, which cost considerably more than £105 to redraw.

The free one

Applications for work to protected trees cost nothing.

This matters more than it sounds, because the threshold for protection is low. Every tree in a conservation area with a trunk over 75mm in diameter measured 1.5 metres above the ground is protected, as is any tree anywhere covered by a Tree Preservation Order. Six weeks’ written notice is required for work to a conservation area tree.

Since the application is free and unauthorised work to a protected tree is a criminal offence, there is no argument for guessing.

What else the project will cost before anyone builds

The application fee is rarely the largest number.

• Drawings. Measured survey plus existing and proposed drawings. Expect this to exceed the application fee comfortably.
• Structural engineer. Needed wherever load-bearing structure is removed or an opening is spanned.
• Building control. Separate from planning, and always required. Applications in this district go to Sussex Building Control, the shared service run by Horsham District Council and Crawley Borough Council.
• Party wall surveyors. If a neighbour dissents from your notice (and silence counts as dissent), surveyors are appointed and an award drawn up. Their fees are normally paid by the person doing the work.
• Any specialist reports the council asks for. Ecology, arboriculture, heritage. More likely in a conservation area or near protected trees.

One thing that has just got cheaper, and almost nothing online says so

For four years, development across the Sussex North water supply zone, which covers much of Horsham District, was constrained by Natural England’s water neutrality position, requiring statements and offsetting payments.

That position was withdrawn on 31 October 2025. From 1 November 2025 no water neutrality statement is required and no payment into the certification scheme is needed; the scheme will not now launch. New dwellings still have to meet the tighter water efficiency standard of 110 litres per person per day under the council’s own policy.

Most of what is written online about developing in Horsham still describes the old regime. If someone quotes you for a water neutrality statement, that is out of date. There is more on what water neutrality still means in Horsham, and who it still touches.

Where the fees come from

Statutory fees are set nationally and published by the Planning Portal. The proposed December 2026 figures are from the draft regulations on legislation.gov.uk. Pre-application fees, tree applications and the water neutrality position are Horsham District Council’s own, published on their website. Both change: the statutory schedule is updated periodically and councils revise their own charges. So check before relying on any figure here.

What to do next

If the question is whether your project needs permission at all, £65 to the council answers it definitively. If the question is what it will cost to build, that is a different conversation.

Tell us what you are planning and we will give you an itemised written quotation for the building work.