Decentralization minister Greg Clark has confirmed local authorities will be able to set the community infrastructure levy at a low rate when sites are economically difficult to bring forward and at a high rate when they are easy, offering them the opportunity to encourage brownfield development and discourage greenfield.
In a speech in London, Mr Clark emphasised that the Government's aim is that the benefits of development should be felt at very local level.
He said the CIL, created by the previous Government out of the wreckage of its planning gain supplement proposals, is an important tool to make developers pay a proper contribution towards local infrastructure and reflect demands such as increased traffic or pressure on services they cause.
He confirmed that Section 106 will still continue but, as was the case until the late 1980s, it will only be used for facilities and resources bearing a close relationship to the development.
And he confirmed the CIL will be applied at varying rates.
"Where sites are economically difficult to bring forward, authorities will be able to set the rate at a low level, to ensure new development can go ahead," he said.
"Elsewhere, authorities will be able to set a higher rate, reflecting the existing higher demands on infrastructure."
Mr Clark said the imminent Localism Bill will provide more details of changes including the new homes bonus and neighbourhood plans. He said the principle of neighbour hood plans is simple.
"Local people come together and agree, ‘this is what we want our area to look like'," he said.
"'Here is where we want the new homes to go and how we want them designed; here is where we want new shops and offices; here are the green spaces we want to protect'."
What will constitute a neighbourhood and how the plans will interact with local plans which are to get more importance remains to be seen.
"We will have more to say about neighbourhood planning when we publish the Localism Bill," said Mr Clark.
