Appendix K : Press article about CIL

Housebuilding in many parts of Britain could be delayed by the lack of preparation among three quarters of local authorities for changes to the planning system that come into force next month.

The government’s new system means that in most cases councils will have to rely on using the community infrastructure levy (CIL) to raise money from developers to fund local infrastructure projects, instead of using the Section 106 planning agreement, as they have in the past.

Ministers believe that the CIL, which is charged per square metre of floor space, is more transparent than the Section 106 planning agreement, which often is negotiated with developers on a case-by-case basis. Use of the latter will be restricted from next month and councils will be able to use it only in certain cases.
A report by Savills and the Home Builders Federation said that up to 75 per cent of local
planning authorities in England and Wales would not have a charging schedule in place by April 6. Even if they started to try to implement one on this date, it could take up to two years, the report said. Without CIL receipts to fund infrastructure, the concern is that development may stall.
There is a risk that planning applications that previously would have relied on the use of
Section 106 obligations to meet the infrastructure requirements of the development could be refused.
Charlie Collins, the national CIL co-ordinator at Savills, the international property group,
said: “In the absence of a clear solution to these issues, there are very significant risks of delay to housing delivery post April 5.”
It was almost impossible to know exactly how many housing sites would be affected, he
said. However, Mr Collins added that the risks were greatest for the 37 per cent of the
identifiable housing supply pipeline that was within sites of more than 500-home capacity
and yet to be awarded planning consent.
Andrew Whitaker, planning director at the HBF, said: “We believe government must provide further guidance to local planning authorities of the actions they must take to avoid planning permissions being refused on the basis of the cumulative impact of development on infrastructure.”