Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Planning Policy Team Leader presented the report which briefed the Committee on the technical consultation to the proposed new Infrastructure Levy (IL) under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. It was explained that, if introduced, the Infrastructure Levy would change how development contributions were secured in Arun; contributions currently being secured via the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 Agreements.
The Members’ discussion of the report primarily focussed on what the benefits of the new process were compared to the current charging regimes. It was explained that the current charging schedules were based on local land values and the proposed high level response would urge that the benefit of the new system should retain such local land and viability data and not just be subject to national data. It was also anticipated that charging the levy for floor area created on completion rather than at approval should lead to an increase in receipts due to rising prices over time and at the same time encourage developers to build out sooner. Section 106 Agreements being subject to inflation whilst the CIL charging schedule was updated for indexation only annually and not retrospectively was also highlighted, so this could mean that delays in charging until completion could also remove any inflationary differences between approval and completion. The recommendation was then proposed by Councillor Bower and seconded by Councillor Yeates.
The Committee
RESOLVED
That the proposed response under paragraph 4.11 of the report be agreed.