CIL Watch #9

The latest CIL Watch update includes news of the top 10 highest Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charges to so far have been proposed by councils, plus details of all the latest developments relating to the new developer tariff.

The top 10 CIL charges

While most charges put forward so far have been in the region of £100 per square metre for residential development, some – particularly in London – have far exceeded this. Last week, the London of Borough of Merton published its initial CIL plans, which revealed that residential schemes in Wimbledon could face a charge of £385 per square metre. The news caused a stir on social networking site Twitter (see below – “astonishing sums” appears to be the verdict of the Twitterati).

With this in mind, CIL Watch has trawled through councils’ CIL documents to produce a list of the highest residential charges to be published to date (we think it’s comprehensive, but there’s always the possibility that a preliminary draft charging schedule or two may have slipped through the net). The top 10 is ranked by the CIL payments that developers would, under councils’ published plans, be required to make on an average-sized house * (we’ve used a figure of 76 square metres for an average house, based upon research published by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment in 2009).

The list is as follows:

1. £43,700 – Nine Elms area A (the London Borough of Wandsworth’s draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £575 per square metre for residential development in the riverside section of the Nine Elms area, which is earmarked for major regeneration, and pictured above. £575 per square metre multiplied by 76 is £43,700)

2. £29,260 – Wimbledon (the London Borough of Merton’s preliminary draft charging schedule, which goes out to consultation on Monday 30 January, proposes a charge of £385 per square metre for this leafy corner of south-west London)

3. £20,140 – Nine Elms area B (Wandsworth’s draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £265 per square metre for this part of the Nine Elms area).

4. £19,000 – Wandsworth (the London borough’s draft charging schedule sets out a charge of £250 per square metre for other areas within its boundaries, not including the Nine Elms district and Roehampton, which is exempt from the charge).

5. £16,036 – Poole – zone A (the Borough of Poole’s preliminary draft charging schedule, which is split into three zones, proposes a charge of £211 per square metre for a seafront section of the borough)

6. £15,200 – Brent (in its preliminary draft charging schedule, which was consulted on last year, the London Borough of Brent proposed a charge of £200 per square metre for residential development across the whole of the borough)

7. £12,768 - Poole – zone B (the Borough of Poole’s preliminary draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £168 per square metre in a zone stretching along the northern shoreline of Poole harbour)

8. £12,160 – Greater Norwich (the Greater Norwich Development Partnership, comprising Broadland District, Norwich City, and South Norfolk Councils, is preparing a joint CIL and has proposed a charge for residential development of between £135 and £160 per square metre. The higher charge would require a payment of £12,160 for an average home)

9. £11,400 – zone B, Wycombe (Wycombe District Council’s preliminary draft charging schedule, consulted on at the end of 2011, proposes a charge of £150 per square metre in part of the district)

10. £10,640 – Colliers Wood/Raynes Park (the London Borough of Merton’s preliminary draft charging schedule proposes a charge of £140 per square metre for these districts)

* A caveat to the above… these charges may not be representative of the full developer contributions that housebuilders may be required to make once levies are introduced. Affordable housing contributions may still be sought from developers on top of CIL – councils will still be able to use section 106 agreements to fund affordable homes. Developers in London also face additional CIL charges from April – the mayoral CIL to raise funds towards the Crossrail project will be charged on top of London boroughs’ own CIL tariffs. Another point to note is that CIL is only payable on net additional floorspace, that is, after the area of demolished buildings has been deducted.

*** This week’s CIL newsflash ***

- Steve Woolley, the leader of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s CIL team, is leaving, Planning revealed today. A DCLG spokeswoman told us: “Now that the implementation of CIL is under way and the Localism Act is in place, the CIL team is being restructured and Steve Woolley is leaving the department. A small team will continue to support implementation.”

- Planning consultancy Roger Tym & Partners has picked up three contracts to support local authorities who are working together to consider introducing CIL in their sub-regions.

- Huntingdonshire District Council has modified its draft charging schedule. It includes a revised CIL rate for health developments, such as health centres and GP surgeries. The local authority’s draft charging schedule had proposed a rate of £140 per square metre for this type of development. But the modified draft charging schedule proposes to slash this to £65 per square metre. A viability report carried out for the council by consultancy Drivers Jonas Deloitte said: “It is recognised that this type of development has been reliant upon the funding regime and that as the wider healthcare sector is currently undergoing a change in structure it is not yet known how development might take place in the future. The additional testing has demonstrated the sensitivity of the appraisal to the CIL rate and the recommended rate has been reduced to accord with the balance between setting the maximum achievable rate while ensuring the majority of development would not be prevented.”

Send your CIL news to jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com. Follow Jamie on Twitter at @J_J_Carpenter