On 28 March, the Government issued a response to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee report on Meeting Housing Demand, which was published in January this year. Of the more eye-catching responses is the idea that the Government still intends to scrap both section 106 agreements and CIL, and replace it with "The Levy".
Details on what The Levy will entail are few and far between, but the stated aim is that it will deliver "...at least as much, if not more, value and onsite affordable as is currently collected."
It's hard to see how that will be possible without an underpinning agreement that deals with the complexity of the current drafting around affordable housing delivery, which is largely through the number and variety of stakeholders involved in the process.
As The Levy would be based on final sales values, "more land value uplift could be captured for communities and public good, providing greater revenue for local authorities to fund more affordable and social housing." Capturing the uplift in values is a noble aim but one that was promoted by the Barker Report back in 2005 (for those who remember the Planning-gain Supplement days...), and which never made it into the current CIL regime, largely due to complexity. Adopting the same approach (or making the same mistakes?) will simply mean s106 delays are replaced with arguments over the viability position (which are already quite lengthy).
Finally, the Environment Act 2021 makes a series of references to delivering commitments under that regime via section 106. Does the Government realise this, or will it also have to amend another piece of legislation when the ink is barely dry, because it has changed its position once again?
We have seen many local planning authorities pause or cancel Local Plan and CIL processes because of the White Paper - I suspect this will add many more to the list. It is far from the certainty the system needs to deliver much needed homes and infrastructure.
To address weaknesses in the existing system of developer contributions, the government is proposing to replace it with a new Infrastructure Levy, which will seek to deliver at least as much affordable housing. We are considering the details of this model, but it would also aim to reduce complexity and uncertainty and enhance the transparency of developer contributions.
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/9234/documents/159940/default/