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Amendment to infrastructure levy aims to secure 75% affordable housing provision
An amendment to ensure that 75% of the proposed new Infrastructure Levy is used to meet affordable housing needs has been added to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
The amendment to the levy was added to the bill by Lord Best ahead of a debate in the House of Lords today as part of the committee stage of its passing.
The levy is set to replace Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy. The new tariff will be paid by developers to local authorities, with rates and minimum thresholds being set by councils.
The amendment will require local authorities to devise their infrastructure delivery strategy – the key document that will determine how proceeds from the levy are spent – in a way that prioritises spending on affordable housing to meet the requirements identified in their local plans.
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Lord Best has inserted two amendments under the section of the bill that deals with the Infrastructure Levy, including a call for the allocation of “(c) at least 75% of the Infrastructure Levy to meet the requirement for affordable housing identified in the charging authority’s local development plan”.
In addition, he added that “(d) where the proceeds generated by the infrastructure levy are likely to be insufficient to meet the requirement mentioned in paragraph (c), set out plans for securing additional funds to address the gap between the level of affordable housing required and the level that the infrastructure levy can support”.
In his explanatory statement, Lord Best said the amendments “tie the application of the Infrastructure Levy to the level of affordable housing requirement identified in the local development plan”.
The amendment echoes a similar statement made by The Centre for Social Justice in December. The thinktank called on the government to make changes to the proposed new Infrastructure Levy to avoid making “a bad situation worse” over the provision of affordable housing.
It also made a series of recommendations, such as ringfencing money collected from the levy for affordable housing.
Fears have previously been raised in the social housing sector over the impact the Infrastructure Levy will have on affordable housing delivery.
Back in 2020, the National Housing Federation criticised the government’s plans to replace Section 106 with the new levy, warning it could see the return of “an era of bolt-on estates” in areas “that no one wants to live in”.
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