Agenda item

Report of the Director of Housing, Regeneration, and Planning. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing, and Housing Services.

The report recommends approval of a Revised Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule. This follows a partial review of the existing adopted Charging Schedule and a recent independent examination in that connection which found the proposed amended CIL rates to be sound.

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing and Housing introduced the report which proposed to increase the CIL rates levied by the Council in the east of the borough for residential, student accommodation and build to rent housing. It was noted that until now, the CIL rate for residential development in the east of the borough has been £15 per square metre and the attached report proposed increasing it to £50 bringing it closer in line with residential rates elsewhere in the borough.

It was noted that the proposed rates would maximise financial contributions from development towards infrastructure whilst ensuring the economic viability of development and protecting the Council’s ability to secure its preferred affordable housing tenures as part of new development.

In considering the attached report and its appendices Cabinet noted that the proposed decision would ensure that affordable housing and other ‘section 106’ financial contributions from developments would not be jeopardised at a late stage in the planning process. The revised rates were proposed to take effect on 1 September 2022 and the developments in the immediate planning pipeline included Council-led housing schemes in the east of the borough. Cabinet further noted that the grace period before the new rates take effect would ensure that the financial model of cross-subsidy to maximise affordable housing was not put at risk.

Whilst the report is about the charges to developers and not about the expenditure of CIL, with regards to a question on the increased access and share of CIL funding in the west of the borough, it was noted that where there was a Neighbourhood Forum established, they had a right to pre-empt certain monies for the forum area. However, recent improvements in the way the Neighbourhood CIL spending formula was applied meant that monies could be moved to the areas where there was essential need.

Cabinet continued to consider the issue of fairer distribution of CIL funding and were further informed that,in summary, there were two separate elements to this question which were increasing rates to developer which the report was taking forward and secondly, how the CIL spending was distributed. The neighbourhood element of CIL was between 15 to 25% of what the Council collected and had to be spent in the neighbourhood area. It was previously acknowledged that in the east of the borough there were unequal distributions compared to the west of the borough but this had recently been corrected and a redistribution formula compiled on a fairer basis. Cabinet Member noted this issue.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the Examiner’s report on the examination of the partial review of Haringey’s Community Infrastructure Levy Draft Charging Schedule, as modified set out in Appendix C of this report;

2.    To note that Members of Strategic Planning Committee endorsed the Revised Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule to take effect on 1 September 2022;

3. To consider and to recommend to Full Council that the Revised Haringey Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule is approved and publicized as set out at Appendix D to take effect on 1 September 2022.

Reasons for decision

The increased CIL rates proposed in the CIL Eastern Charging Zone have been subject to an independent examination which found that they provide an appropriate basis for the collection of the levy in the borough and will not put the majority of developments at risk. The Examiner recommended that the Council may proceed to approve the amended rates subject to one minor modification. The Council has incorporated this modification within the Revised Charging Schedule for approval.

The amended rates are recommended to take effect from 1 September 2022. The Partial Review has been underway since 2016 and the Council’s intent to increase certain CIL rates in the east of the borough has been clear since 2017. The period between Council approval and the rates being given effect will allow the planning authority to ensure that affordable housing and other ‘section 106’ financial contributions from developments will not be jeopardised by the effect of the new CIL rates at a late stage in the planning process i.e. after extensive pre-application negotiations or after a Planning Sub Committee resolution but pending the conclusion of signed S106 agreements and issuing of formal planning permissions (which trigger CIL liability). This is balanced with the objective of not delaying the effect date too far into the future with the Council missing out on potential increased infrastructure funding.

Alternative options considered

• Option 1 – Not to approve the Revised Charging Schedule and cancel the partial review. The disadvantage of this would be that CIL rates and therefore the number of financial contributions from developers for infrastructure would remain the same and would not be maximised. This option is rejected as the Examiner found that the rates in the Revised Charging Schedule provide an appropriate basis for the collection of the levy in the borough and will not put the majority of developments at risk.

• Option 2 – To bring the Revised Charging Schedule into effect earlier or later than the recommended 1 September 2022 date. An earlier effect date is rejected to allow the planning authority to ensure that affordable housing and other ‘section 106’ financial contributions from developments will not be jeopardized at a late stage in the planning process i.e., after extensive pre-application negotiations or after a Planning Sub Committee resolution but pending the conclusion of signed S106 agreements and issuing of formal planning permissions (which trigger CIL liability). Developments in the immediate planning pipeline include Council-led housing schemes in the east of the borough which would be liable to pay the increased CIL rate which could jeopardize the financial model of cross-subsidy to maximise affordable housing. A later effect date would minimize delivery risks for a greater number of schemes in the borough’s pipeline however it would mean foregoing increased infrastructure contributions for a longer period. It is considered that an effect date of 1 September 2022 provides an appropriate balance between the various considerations and therefore the alternative options are rejected and not recommended.