Redbridge councillors approve Community Infrastructure Levy

Redbridge Council has had plans approved to levy a flat rate of £70 per square metre on all new qualifying development in the area.

The charging schedule was approved by an Examiner appointed by the Council in September. The Examiner’s report concluded that the Redbridge CIL provided an appropriate basis for the collection of the levy and gave sufficient evidence to show that it would not put the overall development of the area at risk.

Redbridge is one of only a handful of local authorities whose CIL will come into force at the beginning of 2012 and, unlike most other approved schedules, it imposes a flat rate across all development.

The Examiner's report said: "In the last two or three years there has been a low level of non-residential development [and] hardly any industrial development has taken place in the last seven years".

The Redbridge Core Strategy underpinning the CIL was adopted in March 2008 and sets out the main elements of growth that will need to be supported by further infrastructure in Redbridge. It identifies a range of developments in Ilford town centre and a minimum annualised house building target of 905 dwellings by 2017.

Redbridge's CIL is a charge on the net increase in development of new buildings and extensions. It is designed to help pay for infrastructure. The section 106 agreement process will now just be used for affordable housing and anything required for the specific site. This is a process by which developers carry out works that benefit the public as requested by local authorities when proposing development under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act.

A number of other authorities are adopting “a mix and match” approach to CIL and section 106 agreements.

Redbridge Borough Council has stated how it proposes to implement the CIL. "CIL liability notices will be sent out to developers and landowners with planning decision notices," it said.. "Recipients of such notices will then be required to notify the council once construction begins, at which point Payments & Benefits will issue them with a demand notice usually payable within 60 days."

Taking account of a one third reduction for demolished floor area, the charge is projected to generate about £2.2 million each year, compared with the Council’s highest ever Section 106 receipts of £1.5m, the Examiner's report said.

“It will be important to learn lessons from the operation of CIL in practice in Redbridge," said Richard Ford, a planning law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. "A number of authorities are considering taking a less simple approach to CIL. This includes, for example, proposing different zones and differential CIL rates, based on viability."

"Also, the inter-play of CIL and section 106 agreement 'mix and match' approaches is an area of particular focus. Some developers of large sites want more flexibility than CIL provides, as well as wanting certainty that CIL and section106 contributions, where they mix and match, will be spent in the locations needed to facilitate the development proposed. I am sure a number of lessons will be learnt from the operation of these early CIL charging schedules in practice.”