Out-Law News 1 min. read

Croydon CIL draft charging schedule recommended for approval


An inspector has recommended that The London Borough of Croydon's community infrastructure levy (CIL) draft charging schedule (DCS) is approved.

The DCS proposes that the Borough is divided into two charging zones, the 'Croydon Metropolitan Centre' (CMC) and the 'Rest of the Borough'. It sets out higher rates for commercial developments in the CMC than the rest of the Borough and lower rates for residential developments in the CMC than the rest of the Borough.

The inspector said in his report (6-page / 61KB PDF) that this was supported by the Council's CIL Viability Study which had indicated that land values, gross development values and build costs are all higher in the CMC than outside it.

The inspector said that although residential development within the CMC "struggles to be viable", it remained "highly viable" elsewhere in the Borough where housing had "largely" retained its value and had lower build costs.

The Council has not proposed that developments of fire stations and police stations should pay a nil rate levy. The inspector said that the question had been raised at the Examination Hearing whether such uses should be liable to CIL as they are included within the range of infrastructure to benefit from CIL funding.

The inspector said that although it was "difficult to follow" the logic of the Council's argument that charging the levy to such uses was justified because they would be "recycling CIL receipts to community users", such developments were not likely to form a significant part of the development programme across the area and it was therefore not a matter "that puts the overall development of the area at serious risk".

The Council said it plans to formally adopt the charging schedule in February 2013 and to start charging CIL by April 2013.

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