Community Infrastructure Levy

Yesterday, I attended a seminar describing the new Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which is the new mechanism for funding infrastructure with new housing developments.  Previously, this used to be covered by Section 106 Planning conditions, which formed legal agreements to ensure that infrastructure required to be in place to support housing was negotiated at the time of the planning permission.  Local authorities would be required to secure sufficient funds for schools, roads, leisure amenities and all the community facilities needed to ensure that new residents in a community are supported when they move in.

However, planning regulations have now changed under the new government and the CIL and the New Homes Bonus are both expected to meet the needs of new housing when it is built.   With the news in my previous post that the application for outline planning permission for 2,500 homes on the Grove Airfield site has just been submitted, it is vital that adequate infrastructure for this new housing development is planned and funded.  Residents have been rightly concerned that historic lessons of the past have not been learned where Grove grew via 'planning on appeal' and this created a community which lacked facilities.  We must ensure that this is not repeated.