From Planning Obligations to Community Infrastructure Levy: A New Planning Tool for England

Abstract

The English system of developers’ contributions towards community infrastructure and services remained unchanged for a 40 year period from 1968 to 2008. In 2008 a reform of paramount importance that introduced a new system of developers contributions was passed by the parliament. Thus, negotiated planning obligations were scaled back to include affordable housing and site specific contributions only and provisions for the Community Infrastructure Levy were made. The present paper aims at understanding the potential of this new tool for delivering community infrastructure and services and how it is perceived by local planning authorities who are to set out charging schedules. For this purpose a questionnaire survey was submitted to nearly 300 local authorities in order to obtain their views on the new system. The answers to the questionnaire allowed to explore the implications of planning obligations for the whole planning system. Furthermore, it allowed the attitude of local authorities towards the new tool to be understood as well as the advantages and downsides that may derive from the use of the Community Infrastructure Levy, before it is actually introduced by all local planning authorities, and other planning policy changes.