Trafford Council consults on CIL Preliminary Draft Charging Schedule

The Council has proposed differential rates for residential accommodation ranging from £20 per square metre of development to £80 per sq m, dependent on whether "private market houses" are located in a "cold market sub-area", "moderate market sub-area", or a "hot market sub-area". It has also proposed a differential rate of £65 per sq m for development of an apartment in a "hot market sub-area".

Trafford's CIL PDCS (11-pages / 858KB PDF) proposes differential rates for private market houses and apartments in the "hot market sub-area", which would be charged at £80 per sq m and £65 per sq m respectively. A levy of £40 per sq m is proposed for private market houses in the "moderate market sub-area", which is lowered to £20 per sq m for private market houses in the proposed "cold market sub-area".

The rates proposed for retail development vary from £250 per sq m for "convenience retail" that is outside of a defined centre and above 280 sq m  of net additional floorspace, to £75 per sq m for "comparison retail" that is outside of a defined centre.

A zero rate levy is proposed for all public and institutional facilities, which would include education, health, community and emergency services. All other chargeable development is proposed to be charged at a rate of £10 per sq m of development.

"A reasonable benchmark in terms of profitability and developer’s margin is considered to be 20% of total development cost," the Council said. "The findings of the economic viability assessment showed that margins exceed the benchmark in respect of all the different scenarios modelled for the development of housing. For apartments, three of the four scenarios modelled showed marginal viability."

"For non-residential development only convenience retail, supermarkets, and retail warehouse development were found to be viable when looking at speculative developments on different development types," it said.

Trafford Council will collect the levy in cash in most cases but it said that "there may be circumstances where it will be more desirable for a charging authority to receive land instead of monies".

"The regulations provide for charging authorities to accept transfers of land as a payment in kind for the whole or part of the levy," the Council said, which would be subject to separate negotiation with the Council.

The consultation will be open for comments until 14 September.