The British Property Federation has joined with the Church of England to oppose plans to replace section 106 agreements with an infrastructure levy.
In a letter to levelling up secretary Michael Gove, groups including the National Housing Federation, BPF, Shelter, Crisis and the Church said a new levy to fund cheaper properties could worsen “pre-existing pressures” around supply.
The groups said the proposed levy “risks a significant reduction in the delivery of affordable housing and homes for social rent through the planning system”.
The infrastructure levy would replace a negotiated S106 settlement, which includes a specific allocation for affordable housing, with a broader payment to fund “local services”.
It “could lead to the diversion of developer contributions away from affordable and social housing and towards other, unspecified forms of expenditure entirely unconnected to development”, they wrote.
The groups are backing amendments to the bill put forward by Labour peer Lady Diana Warwick and the cross-bencher Lord Richard Best, a housing expert.
One of Warwick’s amendments would prevent receipts from the infrastructure levy being spent on anything “other than infrastructure”, while Best is proposing mandating that 75% of the levy be spent on affordable housing.
The House of Lords is expected to vote on the bill in the coming days.
