Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help ensure that new housing developments deliver the infrastructure that communities require.

It is important that new housing development is supported by the provision of infrastructure and appropriate services. Local authorities have responsibilities for planning for local development and the infrastructure to support it.

Where new development is proposed, contributions from developers play an important role in delivering the infrastructure to support communities and local economies. Local planning authorities can use the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 planning obligations (together called ‘developer contributions’) to secure funding from new development to contribute towards the delivery of infrastructure.

However, the existing developer contributions regime is discretionary, subject to negotiation and renegotiations based on developers’ viability assessment.

The Government has proposed to introduce a new ‘Infrastructure Levy’, to replace the existing system of developer contributions, which aims to capture a greater share of the uplift in land value that comes with development. Through the Levy, local authorities will have greater flexibility to determine how contributions are spent to shape and support both existing and new communities.