At its meeting on 29 May 2019, the City Executive Board will consider a report on the Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule review. This item provides an opportunity for the Committee to comment on the report and make recommendations to the City Executive Board if it wishes.

At its meeting on 29 May 2019, the Cabinet would consider a report on the Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule review. This item provided an opportunity for the Committee to comment on the report and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Planning Policy and Place Manager introduced the report and drew attention to a few key points. The consultation which had preceded the report had resulted in requests that strategic sites should be zero rated for CIL but, in the absence of sufficient information to test the need for this, so no further action would be taken at this point.

Representations had also been made in relation to B2 and B8 sites and, following viability testing, it was now proposed to submit a ‘statement of modification’ to reduce the rate of CIL for those sites to zero.

Regulations permit the introduction of an Exceptional Circumstances Relief Policy which the report sought to agree. She emphasised that  the policy could only be employed if, on a case by case basis, the conditions set out in the regulations and summarised in the draft policy at Appendix 6 of the report were met.

As highlighted in the draft policy, it was important to note that the majority of sites would be viable and the policy would only ever  be relevant in relation to few, if any. Furthermore, this was a discretionary policy which could be withdrawn at any point.

The Committee expressed concern at the possibility of developers exploiting the relief offered by the exception when it was not warranted and was keen, therefore, to find a mechanism by which Members could be reassured about the transparency and accountability of the application of the policy. Concern was also expressed about the delegation which gave authority to the Head of Planning Services to authorise decisions in relation to the Exceptional Circumstances Relief Policy. It was considered that this may be a significant decision in some large scale developments, which should be open to councillor review. The Committee resolved to make the following recommendation to Cabinet: 

That the Council ensures that any application of the Exceptional Circumstances Relief Policy receives thorough councillor oversight and that a standard operating procedure is devised to ensure this process is in place.