The Conservatives have confirmed that they would repeal Labour’s proposed Planning Gain Supplement (PGS) tax on development, as tipped in last week’s Estates Gazette (page 29).
In yesterday’s House of Commons debate on the Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill, Shadow Paymaster General Mark Francois quoted repeatedly from Estates Gazette as he rejected the legislation.
Francois said: “Most MPs believe that developers should make an adequate contribution to the cost of infrastructure but this is not the way to achieve it.”
The comments follow Tory shadow spokesman for Communities Caroline Spelman’s comments to EG last week, in which she branded the tax “a disaster for business”.
Francois continued: “This new tax is a classic example of Gordon Brown’s obsession with complexity. It is difficult to operate and has been widely criticised by tax and housing practitioners as well as Labour’s own former Local Planning Minister Nick Raynsford.”
He added: “Mr. Peter Bill, editor of Estates Gazette, summed up the PGS proposals more succinctly in a December 2006 editorial: “Of course it won’t work; it didn’t work the five times it was tried in the past century and it won’t work now.””
Labour Financial Secretary John Healey confirmed yesterday that the cost of designing and building the administrative and IT systems needed for PGS was £40m.
References: EGi News 16/01/07
