A report on the proposal, which would bring the council in line with a growing number of local authorities across Scotland, will be considered by the city administration committee on September 17.

Although there is no legislative requirement to seek advice before planning applications are submitted, the council noted that pre-planning guidance helps ensure applications proceed as smoothly as possible and allows developers to save costs.

While a structure for the proposed fees was not disclosed, the report also noted that the charges would vary according to the complexity of the project.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council told The Herald: “The pre-application advice service has operated successfully for a number of years, providing customers with greater certainty on the likely outcome of, and key issues that need to be addressed within, a future application for planning permission. This advice can be given by the planning authority for any type and scale of development within the city – from householder to major development.”

The spokesman added: “Although non-statutory, it is widely recognised that pre-application planning advice can be a valuable step within the development process. It can help give applicants confidence that their proposal may be supported (or otherwise) before costly commitments are made with the preparation and submission of a planning application.”

Gillian Stewart, a director of Michael Laird Architects, said that any move from “informal” advice offered by planners to “robust” and “defendable” guidance is positive from a developer’s standpoint.

She added: “We feel it is probably a good thing. The benefit we see from a design perspective is that it gives you a constructive dialogue at a very early stage.

“As long as it (the fee) is affordable and the advice is worth the money, and adds value to the process. It saves multiple iterations of design development. It would give designers a much clearer steer and I am sure that developers would be happy with that too.

“Anything that gives meaningful dialogue, and is recorded, would add value, as long as the fee is not huge.”

Fiona Gordon, managing associate in the planning and infrastructure consenting team at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, said: “Proactive and pragmatic developers already engage with their local planning authorities at an early stage anyway but, for the most part, developers tend to welcome a more formal pre-application service if it results in increased or improved resources being put towards their application.

“Pre-application engagement has the benefit of ironing out potential issues at the start of the process, rather than facing the prospect of unexpected difficulties or new issues being introduced further down the line, which could ultimately prove more costly and time-consuming.”

But Ms Gordon added: “Major applications already cost six-figure fees – effectively an investment in local authority decision making – however there is not always a well-resourced pre-application service whatever the expectation.

“The requirement for a further significant fee would need to be met with some clear service priorities.”