Letter: New Lead Councillor for Planning Gives Good Impression

Published on: 27 Jul, 2019
Updated on: 27 Jul, 2019

Cllr Jan Harwood

From David Carter

In response to: Dragon Interview: Cllr Jan Harwood, Lead Councillor for Planning

Thank you to The Dragon for giving us the chance to meet the new lead councillor for planning.

First impressions are that Cllr Jan Harwood is an intelligent man who considers issues and is working hard to get up to speed with the very complicated subject of planning and development. To tackle the questions he was given at this early stage of his tenure without major mishap is a credit to his political skills.

I do find it worrying that someone with no property background has been given this job, especially at the stage we are at.

I hope Cllr Harwood loses any ego he might have (he certainly does not come across as egotistic) and reaches out to the many property professionals in our community who, I am sure, would be only too happy to advise for free.

I’m thinking people such as Julian Lyons and John Rigg. He should also consult with others such as Alderman Gordon Bridger and fellow party member Liz Hogger both of whom have a wealth of experience and clearly put Guildford first.

I would like to correct him on the comment he made about the cost to developers of increased build standards, affordable housing contributions and densities being paid for by the developers and not the landowners.

This is not true. The developer will deduct all these costs and obligations from the land value as standard clauses on any option agreement before arriving at the residual site value. The landowner pays for these.

A developer might try to pull the wool over the eyes of a naive councillor or planning officer, saying it is coming off their profits to get a better deal but you can bet they have also deducted it off the site value.

Any developer who has genuinely paid for the site upfront without taking into account all the planning obligations listed in the council’s SPD planning contributions will go out of business very quickly and deservedly so.

I would like to ask Cllr Harwood when the council is going to adopt the Community Infrastructure Levy charging structure so local communities can get some of the proceeds they were promised from developments on their doorsteps?

The council commissioned three viability studies in 2014/16 &17 when they were formulating their Local Plan to determine what level of CIL [community infrastructure levy] could be charged on new developments that would still leave enough land value to make it attractive to a landowner to sell.

These reports showed that a CIL of between £300 to £500 per square metre could be levied on new developments (this equates to about £30,000 per three-bed plot) in addition to the affordable housing obligations and these proposals were consulted on in 2016. Since then nothing.

Communities were promised a slice of the CIL funds (25% with a Neighbourhood Plan in place) to help fund local community infrastructure projects and the promise of these funds helped to sweeten the prospect of development

As Cllr Harwood knows, on the back of the recently adopted Local Plan, there are a huge number of developments going through GBC planning that are going to escape having to pay this CIL because it has not been adopted.

Why the delay?

Please, could Cllr Harwood, as a matter of urgency explain the delay through The Dragon?

Cllr Harwood has been invited to respond.