Following an examination hearing in October, examiner Terrence Kemmann-Lane issued his examination report (21-page / 566 KB PDF) on the DCS last month. He said that the DCS provided "an appropriate basis for the collection of the levy in the borough" provided that the Council modified it to remove "extraneous matters" and simplify its table of rates.
The inspector said that the evidence used by the Council in preparing the DCS was "robust, proportionate and appropriate". He disagreed with representations that the Bishopsgate Goods Yard (BGY) development site, straddling the border between Hackney and Tower Hamlets, should be considered a strategic site attracting a nil rate levy.
Kemmann-Lane noted that the Council had adopted an indicative threshold of 5% of its housing supply for the designation of strategic sites. Only the Woodberry Down regeneration site, at which 5,561 homes were proposed, exceeded this threshold, said the inspector, while the 620 homes proposed within the Hackney parts of the BGY site represented only 2.5% of the Council's planned housing supply.
The inspector said he had seen "no convincing evidence to persuade [him] that BGY should be treated any differently than other development schemes within the Hackney Zone A" and accepted that the proposed CIL rates for the site should not render a scheme unviable.
Kemmann-Lane was satisfied from the evidence provided by the Council that a nil rate was justified for the Woodberry Down regeneration area, which he said "has unique complexities relating to the decanting and re-housing of existing tenants".
The Council said in a statement that it expected its final charging schedule to be presented to a meeting of the full council in early 2015 and CIL to be implemented from 1 April.