The RICS has decided against impact fees and in favour of a planning gain system based on the Irish model, where a lump sum is agreed by a third party.
In a paper published this week, which makes recommendations for the Governments imminent green paper on planning, the RICS suggests replacing section 106 agreements. It urges the Government to explore alternatives, including the system used in Ireland, under which a sum to be paid on granting of planning permission is agreed, assessed by independent professional mediators.
This “would reduce the likelihood of developers being held to ransom or of developers seeking to secure favourable outcomes by offering benefits not directly related to the development”, the RICS said.
The RICS believes this would be preferable to US-style “impact fees”, which the Government is considering. Although national impact fees, which are fixed by formula according to the size of a development, would add certainty to the system, the RICS states that such a system would be inflexible and would not take into account factors such as location or the difference between brownfield and greenfield developments.
The paper includes a raft of other recommendations. These include:
- a string of measures to speed up and introduce more certainty into planning applications, including separating commercial and householder applications, introducing rigid timetables for large applications, raising planning fees for larger schemes and deciding major infrastructure schemes at a parliamentary level
- harsher penalties for poor performing local planning authorities
- “more radical and far-reaching changes” to be made to compulsory purchase orders than the Government has so far proposed.
EGi News 26/10/01
