The Housing Forum responds to Government consultation on Infrastructure Levy

The Housing Forum has responded to the Government’s Technical Consultation on the Infrastructure Levy.

We represent organisations from across the housing sector – including local authorities, housebuilders and social landlords. We see very little enthusiasm for the levy from any of these groups. Our key concerns are around:

– The complexity of the new system and risk that it under-delivers Affordable Housing when compared with the system it replaces.
– The increased financial risks for both developers (including Housing Associations) and local authorities.

We do appreciate the intention to help local authorities to capture more of the land value uplift associated with planning permission, in order to provide the infrastructure and Affordable Housing that is needed for a growing population. The Government also rightly identifies that there are problems with the current system of funding infrastructure via S106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy.

Nevertheless, the overarching feeling across the housing sector is that the current system does work. Around half the Affordable Housing delivered in the country is via S106. We think there is more that could be done to tackle some of the problems in the current system incrementally – such as establishing why CIL is not yet in use in around half of local authorities, and better understanding (and potentially limiting) the circumstances when S106 commitments can be renegotiated on viability grounds.

For a new system such as this to move ahead, cross-party support is essential and does not appear to be present currently.

You can read our response in full hereTechnical consultation on the Infrastructure Levy – Housing Forum response

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