Draft Community Infrastructure Levy (Amendment) Regulations 2018

David Tredinnick Excerpts

Wednesday 24th January 2018 General Committees

[David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Ms McDonagh, and to welcome my hon. Friend the Minister to his place. No doubt he was delighted to read his brief on such a technical matter. It is not the easiest statutory instrument that I have seen.

It is perfectly reasonable to come to the House and this Committee to ask for a change to bring legislation into line with the original intention of the Government. It is perfectly reasonable to expect developers to pay extra charges if they have made changes to plans. My hon. Friend explained that very well. However, I take him to task on one point. He gave examples of how the levy worked, saying that £24 million had been raised in 2016-17, but the examples he gave were all to do with London boroughs. I represent Leicestershire in the east midlands, and I am sure that my constituents will want to know that the benefits of the changes are not just for those within the M25.

Most of us are familiar with another, very important piece of legislation: section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which enables, as colleagues will know, planning authorities to enter into a legally binding agreement or planning obligation with the developer. In my constituency, where we have huge urban development at the Barwell sustainable urban extension, and in Burbage and elsewhere, the contribution of builders is extremely important. I am curious to know whether there is any relationship between the matter that we are discussing and section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act. I look forward to the Minister’s explanation of those points.