In order to mitigate the impact of new developments, developers are usually asked to pay a contribution towards the cost of funding new infrastructure or improving existing infrastructure. Currently, the Council secures this funding through 'Section 106' agreements, which are negotiated with developers during the Planning Application process. Funding is secured for TDC’s areas of responsibility (such as Open Space, and the delivery of affordable housing) and on behalf of third parties (such as education and highways contributions for ECC, and health contributions for the NHS). S106 agreements vary from development to development, and contributions towards most forms of infrastructure are only required on major developments (i.e. 10 or more dwellings).
The Planning Act 2008 introduced a new mechanism for securing funding for infrastructure - the Community Infrastructure Levy, or CIL. CIL contributions are collected on a much wider range of developments (including smaller scale residential schemes) according to an adopted tariff schedule – which not only secures funding from more developers, but also provides certainty (to developers and the Council) about how much will be collected as the schedule is based on £ per sqm of floorspace. Certain contributions (such as the provision of affordable housing) would still be arranged via the usual S106 agreements where appropriate.
Essex County Council have now made funding available to support the Council in preparing and adopting CIL as a preferred method of securing developer contributions. ECC are prepared to pay a Grant to TDC to assist in completing a viability study (up to £20,000), and to provide staffing resources to support the introduction of CIL (up to £45,000). In return, ECC expects the first £65,000 of contributions collected to be spent on ECC priorities within Tendring.
The final decision to implement CIL lies with the elected Councillors of TDC, and the completion of the project does not guarantee the CIL charging schedule will be adopted by the TDC.