Minutes:
David Rowen highlighted to the Forum some anticipated changes for 2022.
1. Government is looking to further digitise planning which would have more public engagement, for a more efficient planning application process. Once further details are known this will be communicated to the Forum.
2. Replacement of Sec 106, with an infrastructure levy and would mean a significant change to the application process.
3. Street Referendums on street level design codes: Greater local involvement in the planning process is being looked at by Government.
4. Brownfield Site investment fund. Increase in funding given to some urban authorities previously and scheme will be expanded to be available more widely to bring Brownfield sites forward.
Marcel Cooper asked how the brownfield site funding will be distributed and David Rowen stated that he would anticipate that the funding may go to Local Authorities to administer, however the details surrounding this scheme are still being looked at and once the information is known it will be passed to Agents and Developers.
Councillor Mrs Laws asked how the possible changes to the Section 106 system will affect CIL going forward. David Rowen stated that his understanding is that all Councils would operate a tariff based approach to development similar to CIL.
John Maxey stated that the reason CIL is not in Fenland is because it was not viable and Section 106 is still required even if you have CIL to cover the affordable housing and he questioned whether affordable housing would be replaced with a tariff and then grant funding for housing associations from that tariff collection to buy on the open market for affordable housing. He added that it raises questions concerning viability concerns that already exist from the existing system.
David Wyatt added that historically, the idea of the Section 106, was that it was attached to the land and therefore when a Section 106 was agreed with planning, it had an effect on the land value. He expressed the view that the new proposals seem to be levied against the developers and he added that with regard to CIL the County Councils in various areas do not seem to work with the District Council and therefore the schemes appear to be disjointed.
Simon Jackson stated that the Commercial Developer Forum is due to take place on 21 February at 1pm.
He added that there is continual strong demand for commercial units and the Bartletts site in Chatteris which is now Bartletts Business Park is almost fully occupied apart from 3 small units.
He stated that there is a large amount of business support available including grant funding and a program to help businesses both existing and new. If anybody is interested then they should contact him on sjackson@fenland.gov.uk
John Maxey expressed the view that in his experience, the biggest thing CIL does is that it encourages Parish Councils to produce a neighbourhood plan. He explained that once a plan is in place it enables the Parish Council coffers to receive 25% of the CIL, whereas if there isn’t one in place you only receive 15% payment.
Councillor Mrs Laws asked Marcel Cooper to confirm the cost of installing an electric charging point into a home and he advised that it is normally £85 per unit into a home, dependent on the requirements, but he added that in his view he is unsure how the infrastructure will cope.
John Maxey added that in his experience, the cabling is not expensive, however the equipment that needs to be connected is around £500, for a reasonable size, rather than a super-fast charging point. He added that the larger cost implication is for air source heat pumps which is in the region of £8000, or more than a gas boiler and that cost will be passed onto the householder by way of RHI at the moment. He added that currently there is very little market evidence that houses with air source heat pumps are selling for £8000 to £10,000 more than those with gas boilers.
Hannah Guy stated all of their cabling systems have been redesigned so that if a potential purchaser would like to put a car charging point in then the facility is there to enable that. She added that in terms of discharging the planning conditions with the councils that want to see that currently it is adequate, and the local authorities are content with that.
John Maxey thanked everybody for attending and stated that he has enjoyed being the Chairman, but now feels the time has come for him to stand down. Members of the Forum reiterated their thanks to him and wished him well.
Date of next meeting 13/4/22