Bournemouth Town Hall planning consultants BournemouthBournemouth Borough Council: Slowly but surely Bournemouth Borough Council move towards the adoption of the Community Infrastructure Levy (if you need a CIL reminder download our Briefing Note from our Intelligence page). The Council has just published the second round of consultation on its proposed Charging Schedule.

The proposed rates now are:

  • Residential development in the Town Centre AAP area (shown on the plan below): ZERO
  • Residential development outside the Town Centre AAP area of 10 units or less with a maximum combined gross floorspace of no more than 1,000 sqm: £120 per square metre
  • All other residential development: £70 per sqm
  • Student accommodation: £50 per sqm
  • Comparison Retail outside the Town Centre AAP area: £250 per sqm
  • Convenience Retail inside the Town Centre AAP area: £250 per sqm
  • Convenience Retail outside the Town Centre AAP area: £250 per sqm
  • Everything else zero.

Planning consultant Bournemouth Community Infrastructure Levy proposal town centre AAPThere are a couple of notable changes from the preliminary consultation last summer. The retail rate has dropped from £400 per sqm to £250. Most significantly for our clients is likely to be the introduction of a higher rate (£120 per sqm) for smaller residential developments outside the town centre. These are projects which thanks to the Government’s recently introduced 10-unit affordable threshold no longer have to contribute anything towards affordable housing. Clearly in light of this the Council has concluded that such developments have become more viable and therefore they can afford to pay more CIL.

The new consultation runs until 23 March 2015. What this of course means is that there is no way the Council will adopt CIL before 06 April 2015 – the cut-off date for all tariff-style Section 106 contributions. They will still have to submit for examination. This means that there will be a period (of perhaps 6 months or more from 06 April 2015) where all development will have no tariff-style S106 contributions (with the exception of the Dorset Heathlands charge for new dwellings) AND no CIL. At present this applies to residential schemes which are below the Government’s recent 10-unit/1000 sqm threshold. It is definitely worth developers getting consents secured before the CIL is adopted in Bournemouth, probably in autumn or winter this year. Act now!

If you want to know more about how CIL or Section 106 contributions might affect you project, please get in touch with one of our consultants today.