Natural Resources Wales: Regulatory Fees and Charges for 2025/2026

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is inviting feedback on its proposed updates to charges for permits, licences, and compliance activities. The consultation follows their review of regulatory fees. The proposed charges adhere to principles of full cost recovery, transparency, efficiency, and avoiding cross-subsidization between different regulatory regimes. Fees and charges account for about 17% of NRW’s total 2024/25 funding.

The consultation closes on the 12th of January 2025, and feedback will be used to shape the final submission to the Minister for Climate Change.  Read the full consultation here. If you have any comments or questions about this consultation, please contact Claire at [email protected]. 

Proposed Changes for 2025/26:

• UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS): new charges for additional sub-installations, increased subsistence and permitting fees for installations, and higher charges for new permits, significant variations, civil penalty notices, pre-application services, and ultra-small emitter data collection to recover a projected £0.4m deficit by the end of 2024/25.
• EPR Waste Standard Rules: introduction of tighter controls through three new Standard Rule Permits (SRPs) with associated permitting and subsistence (annual compliance) proposals, amendments to existing SRP’s and removal of waste exemptions.
• Green List Waste (GLW): new annual up-front fee for GLW shipments to cover future regulatory duties under Article 18, replacing the current self-regulated system. Charges will be based on the number of shipments per financial year, with fees ranging from £250 to £16,500 depending on shipment volume.
• Hazardous Waste Premises Notification Charge: reduce the charge to zero from April 1st, 2025, while maintaining the requirement for producers generating over 500kg of hazardous waste annually to register, due to an ongoing surplus in revenue.
• Water Industry Act s166 Consents, 5-year Scour Valve Release Renewals: charges for 5-year bi-annual scour valve release renewals for water companies, including £820 for a single discharge and £1,337 for multiple discharges per site, with additional charges for extra discharges and Habitat Regulations Assessments.
• Water Resources: a reduced fee of £1,440 for simple renewals (no environmental concerns) and different terms renewals (volume reductions), while more complex renewals will incur a fee of £5,104.
• Species Licencing: new charges for species licence applications, including a fixed fee of £351 for household developments and hourly rates of £125 for complex applications; waivers will be refined to clarify eligibility, with specific criteria for conservation, public safety, invasive species control, and new provisions for disabled access.
• General Increases: cost increases to address deficits in regulatory regimes, including an +8.5% increase to subsistence charges for EPR Water Quality and Waste, +6% for various charge schemes requiring long-term reviews, and a +3% increase for permitting areas to mitigate inflationary pressures.