Letter: Can Council Prevent Early Planning Applications Escaping Community Infrastructure Levy?

Published on: 12 Feb, 2019
Updated on: 12 Feb, 2019

From Stephen Walker

In response to: Funding for Pavement Maintenance Will Remain A Significant Issue

As a regular reader of The Dragon, which discusses lots of local issues, it is appreciated that Cllr Spooner, the leader of Guildford Borough Council, is, quite clearly, also an avid reader and his responses help unravel the complicated business of running local government

I have a question which I am hoping he can also shed light on which concerns funding.

The Local Plan promises lots of houses and to sweeten the impact it also promised lots of money to local communities through the collection of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), 10-25% of which (depending on whether or not there is a Neighbourhood Plan in place) was promised to local Parish Councils.

Whilst the Local Plan has not yet been adopted, there are several applications being currently considered under its policies which, if approved before the local plan is fully adopted (May 2019?), will avoid having to pay the CIL.

Take for example the Clockbarn’s Nursery application (19/P/00027) which looks to build approximately 4,820 sq metres of private housing. This should incur a CIL charge of £1,446,000 (£300per sq M) of which 10% would be handed to the local Parish Council.

I would like to ask the Leader of the Council if he considers it fair that these developments, determined according to the policies of the emerging Local Plan, miss out on having to pay CIL which, at £300-£500 per sq metre, is a great deal of money.

It is appreciated that the developers will be charged Section 106 contributions to Highways and Education but the parish councils will not receive a penny as promised on many occasions from councillors during the local plan debates.

Is there anything the council can do, ie “Grampian condition” the permission to collect this CIL from these premature applications? Or will the parish councils lose out?