Mid Sussex Council needs to stop giving small scale housing developers a free ride

9.48.19pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Sep 2009

New housing sites can often occur when larger gardens or other small sites are redeveloped, these "windfall" housing sites provide several hundred new houses a year, yet our Conservative District Council has failed to ensure developers of these sites pay any contribution to local infrastructure. Normally new housing developments are required to contribute towards the cost of new community infrastructure (known as s106 contributions) to help pay for improvements to roads, schools, libraries, community facilities and social housing. Yet Mid Sussex currently excludes new developments of under 15 houses of having to contribute towards new social housing, and developments of five or less houses do not have to make any contribution to local infrastructure (unlike some other local councils). This gives an incentive to developers to redevelop single back gardens such as Folders Lane in Burgess Hill with piece meal development that avoids them having to make any contribution - despite providing dwellings in this road alone which can house several hundred people - but making no contribution to the increased public facilities required.

The Council is currently consulting on a Development and Infrastructure Special Planning Document which could allow it to make changes, Liberal Democrats say it should stop giving developers a free ride and ensure the builders of all new houses have to contribute towards the cost of community infrastructure. A new Community Infrastructure Levy will enable local authorities to apply a levy to all new residential and commercial developments from next April which will help formalise the s106 procedures. The aim is to ensure the costs incurred in providing infrastructure to sustain a development will be subsidised by land owners who have benefitted from the uplift in the value of their land as a result of planning permission. Let's hope Mid Sussex Conservatives get their act together and ensure all development of new houses contribute their fair share to local public infrastructure.