Local authorities have been told they can recover the escalating cost of providing pre-planning advice for new nuclear power stations or wind farms.

Senior officials at the CLG and Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) last week wrote to councils which host approved sites under the Government's Strategic Siting Assessment regime, which identifies possible sites for national infrastructure projects.

Following uncertainty among councils about the high cost of providing pre-planning application advice about their sites, the letter reminds finance directors that they ‘can recover costs by charging a fee under Section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003'.

The letter, co-signed by CLG chief planner, Steve Quartermain, and DECC chief executive, Mark Higson, adds: ‘Such a decision would be a matter for the local authority in question, in light of discussions with the potential scheme promoter.'

Some councils had been concerned the cost involved in providing complex advice on nuclear power stations, in particular, would swallow up vital local resources.

The Government intends to publish a list of sites for new nuclear power stations later this year, but most reactors are expected to be built on, or close to, existing sites.
CLG's new planning regime has handed decisions over sites for controversial power stations to a new quango, the Infrastructure Planning Commission, from 2010.

But the mandarins' letter acknowledges that much of the pre-planning advice required from councils can be ‘resource intensive'.

The letter also makes it clear that while local authorities can provide ‘appropriate pre-application advice' or ‘consent for preliminary works' on sites, it ‘should not fetter the discretion of councils to represent the views of their area on any subsequent application to the IPC'.

A senior DECC source told The MJ, Whitehall had ‘been keen to ensure that local authorities did not incur disproportionate costs' within the new planning system.