Agenda item

Councillor questions under Council Procedure Rule 4.5(k) (if any)

Minutes:

Questions submitted by Councillor Dewhirst.

 

Question 1

Will the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing please explain why the Community Infrastructure Levy Monitoring Report for 2017/18 was published by Teignbridge Council almost nine months after the report period ended in April last year. 

 Answer from Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing

The CIL regulations require Community Infrastructure Levy Monitoring Reports to be published by the end of December following the financial year to be reported.  The Teignbridge CIL Monitoring Report for 2017/18 was published within this timescale on 19 December 2018.

Question 2

Will the Portfolio Holder for Planning & Housing also confirm if all CIL payments arising from planning applications have been (1) made and (2) also spent on the relevant requirements stipulated in the planning consents?

 Answer from Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing

 

There are currently five housing developments with overdue CIL payments totalling £185,504.76.  One of these is for just 20 pence and therefore is likely to be written off, subject to the usual procedures.  Three others, totalling £10,272.99 are subject to discussions on repayment and we expect to receive all of the outstanding amounts in due course.  The remaining £175,231.77 relates to a single site where a technical commencement was made (contrary to our advice) but none of the houses have been started and are unlikely to be built.  Instead, the applicant has submitted a new application on the site with 100% affordable homes, which has been approved subject to a Section 106 agreement.  We are currently considering how to resolve the CIL situation in a way that does not prevent the much-needed affordable homes being built.

Planning permissions do not determine how CIL should be spent.  This is the domain of the Council’s Regulation 123 list of infrastructure to be funded through CIL, as well as the Capital Programme.

Supplementary question

In response to Cllr Dewhirst’s supplementary question regarding interest paid on late payments of CIL. The following reply was received:-

 

Answer

Yes.  The CIL regulations require that ‘late payment interest’ is paid at an annual rate of 2.5% above the Bank of England base rate starting on the day after the day that payment was due.

Question 3

Will the Portfolio Holder also provide the value figure (in £) for CIL of planning applications that attract CIL(Item 2 of the Report) but have not been implemented within the time limit identified within the Planning consent?  

 Answer from Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing

The current calculated position is that planning permissions with a CIL liability value of £655,506 have not been implemented within the relevant time limit. 

Government is consulting on the introduction of additional CIL reporting requirements.  We will need to respond to new regulations when they are introduced.

Supplementary question

In response to the Cllr Dewhirst supplementary question regarding payments to Parish and Town Councils, the following reply was received:-

 

Answer

 

Teignbridge do not (and are not required to) pass CIL income to Town and Parish Councils until it has been received.  As unpaid CIL has not been passed to Town and Parish Councils, it will not be necessary to ask them to return it.

Question 4

Will the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing commit to circulating a copy of the report by email link to all members and bringing this report to Scrutiny before the end of March 2019?

 Answer from Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing

The 2017/18 CIL report is available at https://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/media/7694/cil-monitoring-report-17-18.pdf

It will be reported to Scrutiny before the end of March 2019.

 

The following question had been submitted by Cllr Connett

 

What evidence does Teignbridge Council hold that confirms the view expressed during a recent Planning Committee meeting that the Council of Mortgage Lenders along with banks and building societies will not provide mortgages if a property is on a development which also has allocated pitches for Gypsies and Travellers; and,

 

What steps has Teignbridge Council taken, or intends to take, to clarify the view of the Council of Mortgage Lenders with regard to this issue?"

 

Answer from the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing

 

The predecessor of Teignbridge’s current Business Manager for Strategic Place, attended a meeting in early 2017 with various mortgage company representatives also present as well were developers and local authority colleagues.

 

Having looked into this, the officer doesn’t believe any notes of the meeting were produced. However, the informal reporting they received was that mortgage companies were very reluctant to provide mortgages for new homes particularly in close proximity to Gypsy and Traveller pitches as a consequence of the lack of information about effects this could have on market value – particularly resale value – and this was considered to be a whole market position, hence reference to overarching organisations.

 

The officer would like to apologise for any misspeakings of the bodies involved and any confusion caused.

 

The difficulties in following this through are highlighted by the fact that colleagues in Mid Devon are currently commissioning a piece of Local Government Association funded research to investigate in a more concrete way the extent to which lenders are unwilling to get involved in sites of this nature. Officers will assist with this research where necessary.