Mayor of London consults on Crossrail contributions guidance

The guidance amends the calculation for contributions through obligations to be based on gross internal area rather than gross external area.

The draft Supplementary Planning Guidance (51-page 733KB PDF) is published as a supporting document to the London Plan's policies on Crossrail funding and planning obligations.

The guidance provides that when councils assess whether to seek contribution to the construction cost of Crossrail through section 106 agreements, they should be able to demonstrate a direct relationship between the development and the need for Crossrail. They should also be able to demonstrate that the scale of the contribution fairly and reasonably relates to the development and directly related to the scale of the impact the development will have.

The guidance sets out that retail, hotel and office developments in central London and the northern part of the Isle of Dogs should be required to contribute if they involve a net increase in office floorspace of more than 500 square metres. The Mayor said that this is the form of development which gives rise to the most substantial impact which will be mitigated by Crossrail.

The measure is amended from previous guidance to be based on gross internal area rather than gross external area to bring it in line with how calculations for CIL are based. In the rest of London contributions should only be sought from retail, hotel and office developments if they are within an approximate 1km radius of a Crossrail station, with the exception of Woolwich Arsenal which has its own contribution scheme.

The Mayor also said that the best way to ensure that developers are not subject to "unreasonable demands" to make both CIL and section 106 payments towards Crossrail is to treat CIL payments as a credit towards any section 106 payments if the CIL payments are less than the section 106 payments.

The consultation will close on the 15 January.