Reading council has raised nearly £1 million from the planning process, with more than two dozen appeals decided over the last year, according to recently published statistics.
An annual report by Reading Borough Council’s planning department has just been published, containing figures on decisions and other statistics.
The council decided on a total of 568 planning applications in 2024/25.
An applicant is allowed to appeal against a decision the council has made to the government’s planning inspectorate.
An appointed inspector will either allow the appeal -meaning a development can go ahead- or dismiss it, confirming the council’s refusal.
The council won a high-profile appeal against its decision to refuse 15 flats at Eaton Place near The Butler pub last October.
Only three appeals were allowed by the government’s planning inspectorate over the last year.
The report also contains figures for the amount developers have paid to submit applications, with a total of £967,488 being paid for the 2024/25 council year.
This amount would be higher, however, applicants do not have to pay fees for prior approval and permitted development applications, following rule changes in May 2013.
The amount the council lost in developer contributions used to be reported on a quarterly basis.
A report from 2020 stated more than £6 million of potential income has been lost since the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government designated the conversion of commercial properties into housing as permitted development.
The council has lost £1,888,297 in planning application fees alone since 2013 according to a separate council report from September last year.
The figures will be presented at the meeting of the council’s planning applications committee on Wednesday, April 30.
