The BPF has urged the Government to abandon the proposals for a new infrastructure levy and to improve the existing CIL and Section 106 instead
The consultation for the DLUHC proposal for the new infrastructure levy comes to a close on the 9th June.
Pursuing a new system of developer contributions will not alleviate the existing difficulties experienced under the levy, argues BPF.
Instead, the new levy will slow down the development process and will ‘result in increased uncertainty’ in the planning system.
Concerns associated with the new infrastructure levy include:
- Difficulty in setting viable levy rates for brownfield and urban development sites.
- The new levy will not have the correct mechanisms for calculating affordable housing provisions.
- The Infrastructure Delivery Strategy needs to be raised to the same importance as the new levy to ensure benefits are felt locally.
- Implementing a new levy will add strain on already under-resourced local authority planning departments.
- Using GDV as a primary measure to calculate the liability of the levy will cause uncertainty for funders and local authorities due to changes between valuations.
According to Ian Fletcher, director of policy at BPF, “[The BPF] are incredibly concerned about the impact the new levy would have on the timely provision of new infrastructure, the delivery of new affordable homes, and the uncertainty it would create in the market.”
