On 31st July this year, the Government lost a High Court challenge to its change to national guidance in respect of affordable housing thresholds to small scale residential developments by way of a Ministerial Statement in November 2014. This decision reversed the position regarding when affordable housing contributions should be payable on schemes of 10 or less dwellings and came into force with immediate effect.
The effect of this decision has served to make invalid part of the CIL Charging Schedules which had been amended by some Councils to take account of the earlier Ministerial Statement.
Following advice from the Planning Inspectorate, Christchurch and East Dorset have today announced that they are now not in a position to adopt their recently approved CIL due to the impact of the above decision. These two authorities are now undertaking a partial review of the CIL Charging Schedules for their areas and are publishing Preliminary Draft Charging Schedules for consultation, which only seek to amend the Charging Schedules to take account of the impact of the reversal of national guidance in respect of small scale residential developments.
The Councils are seeking representations on the amendments to the CIL Charging Schedules over a 4-week period from the 11th September until 9th October 2015.
Should you require any support and advice in respect of the proposed changes to the Christchurch and East Dorset CIL Schedules, or how the above will effect the emerging / adopted CIL Schedules in other local authority areas then please do not hesitate to contact us.