Housing and planning minister Keith Hill was yesterday due to propose a new system for getting affordable housing through the planning system. Developers will be given the choice of paying a charge rather than building affordable homes.
In a move that will raise the spectre of the unpopular housing tariff proposed by the government in December 2001, the ODPM said the proposals would speed up a "slow" planning system.

Planning obligations are currently negotiated using section 106 agreements between councils and developers. These provide amenities such as affordable housing in return for the land value gained by granting planning permission.

Currently, 12,000 affordable homes are built annually under section 106 agreements.

Hill launched the consultation on planning obligations yesterday in a speech to the British Council of Shopping Centres in Birmingham.

He said: "The problem is the system is simply too slow and fails to deliver what's needed when it is needed. We need a radical solution.

"This new optional charge is the solution. It will give developers a choice."

This new optional charge is the solution. It will give developers a choice

Planning minister Keith Hill

Under the proposals, councils would have to give details of the optional charges they would levy in their local plan. They would charge different amounts for housing, retail or industrial land.

For the first time, Hill admitted the influence the Treasury's Barker review is having on the planning process. "We will consider any relevant recommendations of the Barker review," he stated, "before it finalises its planning obligations policy in summer 2004."

Planners have been calling for clarity around section 106 agreements ever since the government published its initial consultation in 2001. Housing associations have said the agreements create an adversarial relationship between councils and developers, a state of affairs that slows the whole process.

However, the idea of a development tariff was roundly condemned by developers as unworkable in 2001.

Source

Housing Today