Policy IN 2: Developer Contributions

  1. Developer contributions will be sought to make sure that the necessary physical, social, public realm, economic and green infrastructure is in place to deliver development. Contributions will be used to mitigate the adverse impacts of development (including any cumulative impact). Such contributions will help facilitate the infrastructure needed to support sustainable development.
  2. Development proposals will be expected to provide a contribution towards the cost of infrastructure. Subject to statutory processes and regulations, contributions may be collected towards:
    1. Initial costs, e.g. design and development work and pump priming of projects or programmes;
    2. Capital costs;
    3. Ongoing revenue such as the management and maintenance of services and facilities;
    4. Any other infrastructure related costs permitted by law and identified as a local need;
    5. Contributions will be collected through Section 106 agreements and / or through a Community Infrastructure Levy once a Charging Schedule is in place; and
    6. Until a Charging Schedule is in place, contributions from Section 106 agreements may be pooled to meet the costs of strategic infrastructure, where this meets the legal tests as set out in the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations. Once the Charging Schedule is in place, Section 106 agreements will continue to be used for site specific costs and affordable housing.

Justification

10.11 Any Section 106 planning obligations can only be taken into account in determining planning applications where they meet the following tests from Regulation 122 of the CIL Regulations 2010:

10.12 Developer contributions secured through planning obligations are no longer able to be pooled from more than five different obligations to deliver the provision of a certain project or type of infrastructure. This restriction, from Regulation 123 of the CIL Regulations 2010, is intended to ensure that local planning authorities use CIL instead of planning obligations to secure contributions for infrastructure that serves a wider area than just the specific development site or group of sites.

10.13 The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), upon adoption of the Charging Schedule, will be used to pool developer contributions towards local and strategic infrastructure that will serve a wider area than any one development in particular.

10.14 The CIL is a locally set standard charge that can be applied to new development to fund infrastructure. It is calculated in £ per sq m of new buildings or extensions and is based on the fact that the value of land or property typically rises as a result of development. Whilst the charge can be varied by area and type of development on the basis of viability evidence, there are no other reasons for setting differential CIL charges.

10.15 Cheshire East Council have identified, in an Infrastructure Delivery Plan, what strategic infrastructure is needed to support the amount and distribution of growth proposed in the Local Plan Strategy, and how much it will cost, including the funding shortfall identified after taking account of already committed funding. Before developer contributions can be sought through CIL to make up at least part of this shortfall, a Levy Charging Schedule will be published, consulted on, examined and adopted, establishing a Levy Charge.

10.16 CIL may be used to fund the provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure that arises as a result of increased development related demand. The following types of infrastructure may be considered for funding through CIL, although the list is not exhaustive. These are:

  1. Roads and other transport facilities;
  2. Flood defences;
  3. Schools and other educational facilities;
  4. Improvements to public realm;
  5. Medical facilities;
  6. Sporting and recreational facilities;
  7. Open spaces.

10.17 The provision of affordable housing or financial contributions towards affordable housing cannot currently be secured through CIL. Such contributions are secured through S106 agreements.

10.18 Work on the Cheshire East CIL will commence following the adoption of the Local Plan Strategy or sooner if considered appropriate. It is expected that at this stage, the council will have a greater understanding of the infrastructure requirements for Cheshire East.

10.19 The government has stated that parish councils can receive 15% of CIL payments, capped at £100 per dwelling. This is raised to an uncapped 25% where the parish council has a Neighbourhood Plan. The money is paid directly to the parish council, to be spent on community infrastructure projects of their choosing.

Key Evidence

  1. CIL Regulations
  2. Infrastructure Delivery Plan.

Policy information

 

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