Government’s proposals revealed in a new Consultation document
24 March 2014
The Government’s proposals for exempting self and custom builders from Section 106 contributions have been revealed in a new Consultation document posted on the Department for Communities and Local Government website over the weekend.
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Called ‘Planning performance and planning contributions’, the document is a follow-up to a brief mention in the Chancellor’s autumn statement of last December, when he announced that the Government was minded to remove the requirement for small developments (of ten or less homes) to pay any section 106 affordable housing contributions.
In recent years many individual self builders have been hit by demands for sizeable section 106 affordable housing contributions from their councils, and in extreme cases councils have asked for many tens of thousands of pounds in return for planning permission.
Since the announcement of the potential exemption last December a lot of self build and small housing schemes have been ‘mothballed’ until the results of the Consultation programme are known.
In the document the Government says it “considers that such contributions for small scale sites, including for those wishing to build their own home, can make a scheme undeliverable” and it argues that it wants to introduce the exemption “to help address the disproportionate burden being placed on small scale developers, including those wishing to build their own homes, and which prevents the delivery of much needed, small scale housing sites.”
The Consultation document proposes that before any request for affordable housing contributions can be considered as part of a section 106 planning obligations agreement “authorities will have to have regard to national policy that such charges create a disproportionate burden for development falling below a combined 10-unit and maximum of 1,000 square metres gross floor space threshold. We also intend to make clear that, having regard to such disproportionate burdens, authorities should not seek affordable housing contributions for residential extensions or annexes added to existing homes.”
A number of questions are posed in the Consultation document. These include:
- Asking if the proposed exemption will help to speed up housing delivery.
- Asking, for those councils that have not yet introduced a CIL charge, if the exemption should be widened beyond Section 106 affordable housing contributions; for example to also cover contributions towards highways, parks, schools etc. (From late February self builders were exempt from paying a CIL charge, where one is in place). See: ‘CIL exemption for self and custom builders comes into force’
The National Self Build Association (NaSBA) will be formally responding to the Consultation document over the next few weeks. It expects there to be lots of opposition to the proposals from local authorities and social housing providers.
When the Consultation process ends in May the Government will then decide exactly what it will do, with a final announcement expected in the early summer.
You can download the full Consultation document via the Gov.uk website.
