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The government’s call for planning contributions to be “deferred” to help boost development does apply to affordable housing but councils have discretion in making this decision, the housing minister has confirmed.
Last week, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued a call to planning departments to “help remove barriers for developers and minimise the stalling of sites” by deferring payments due under the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106.
It was not immediately clear whether this applied to affordable housing requirements – which are typically imposed under Section 106 – or just cash payments and contributions to infrastructure.
He said: “Local planning authorities already have significant flexibilities to defer Section 106 payments of all kinds. We have published additional planning guidance to encourage local authorities to consider using these flexibilities to ensure that infrastructure and affordable housing is delivered at the right time.”
He added that it “remains for the local authority to determine” what it should defer.
The government’s own analysis of how to speed up development, published by Sir Oliver Letwin in October 2018, recommended an increase in the diversity of tenures on sites.
This is because market for-sale housing is limited by the ‘absorption rate’ – or the speed at which properties can be sold on the local market.
Social and rented housing tenures can, however, often be delivered more quickly in areas of housing pressure and are far less likely to be stalled by an economic downturn.
Mr Murray, MP for Ealing North and former deputy mayor for housing at City Hall, called for councils not to defer affordable housing contributions.
He told Inside Housing: “The government should invest far more in council and social housing to rebuild after the outbreak. But instead the government wants to relax planning obligations, which could see the amount of social housing fall at a time when we need it most.
“Ministers have accepted, though, that local authorities will be able to determine what happens for individual applications, and so councils should make clear that obligations to build vital new affordable housing cannot be pushed aside.”
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