The Government's decision to impose a tax on development is a spectacular U-Turn on its pre-election commitment to scrap the proposed Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and reform planning obligations, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Brian Berry, FMB Director of External Affairs said: "The Government's decision to retain section 106 agreements as well as the CIL is very embarrassing for the Government. While in Opposition the Conservative Party publically stated in its planning policy paper that, "we will scrap CIL and non-site-specific planning obligations", and said that the twin track section 106/CIL approach, which they are now proposing, is "unnecessarily complicated and does nothing to address the uncertainty and delays that currently exist in agreeing planning obligations". Quite why the Government has now decided to adopt an approach they so roundly condemned in their own policy paper is very difficult to fathom."


Mr Berry concluded: "The Government needs to return to its original idea of the local tariff and if it is serious about delivering new homes they need to sit down with the industry to design the details which will make it work."

(CD)