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Latest newsPeers hear business views on planningThe Planning Bill is currently awaiting its report and third reading stages in the House of Commons following the conclusion of its examination by Public Bill committee in February. Back in January John Cridland provided oral evidence to the Public Bill Committee outlining the imperative need for reforming how the planning system determines nationally significant infrastructure projects.Apart from some technical amendments, the CBI is pleased that government proposals have so far not been watered down. In April we organised a roundtable breakfast discussion between senior business representatives and peers in anticipation of the bill moving to the Lords later this year. The message from the CBI and business was clear: without reform there is a real danger that the UK will fail to attract and deliver the unprecedented amounts of investment across its core infrastructure networks which are essential for sustaining economic growth and achieving prime environmental objective – particularly on climate change. The CBI will closely monitor progress of the Planning Bill over the next few months and will continue efforts to engage members of the House of Lords. For more information please email Luke Jouanides. Community Infrastructure Levy: your views neededGovernment amendments made to the Planning Bill during its examination by Public Bill Committee gave some welcome clarity on how the government sees the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) operating. But the CBI remains concerned over continued references to 'value uplift' on the face of the bill which arguably distorts the original purpose of CIL, which is to raise funds to help delivery of new infrastructure in proportion to the impact of new development on local communities.Much of the detail concerning how CIL is expected operate at the local level will be developed through regulations. The government is currently holding discussions with stakeholders on the scope of these regulations, due to be published for consultation in the autumn. We will respond to this consultation, but in the meantime CBI members should feel free to let us know their views. Please email Luke Jouanides. Regional land use and transport planningOn 31 March the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and CLG published a consultation on how the government intends to move forward with its proposals to reform sub-regional governance arrangements – as detailed in the July 2007 Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration. The consultation discusses important reforms to regional land use and transport planning – including the integration of regional economic, transport and spatial strategies into one single document whose development will be the sole responsibility of Regional Development Agencies. The consultation also considers how regional economic priorities can be more directly reflected in the corporate objectives of local authorities, alongside supporting and enabling collaboration across sub-regional economic areas to help ensure the efficient delivery of key economic objectives. For more information please email Karen Dee.Killian and Pretty review: your input neededIn March the government announced a new independent review of the development control process by David Pretty (ex-CEO of Barratt Developments) and Joanna Killian (CEO of Essex CC). The review has recently contacted stakeholder organisations to gather detailed feedback on how the 'end-to-end' planning application process can be improved. We're keen to incorporate as many views, ideas and suggestions from CBI members to help guide our input. Key areas are:
Empty property rates: government decision The government published its decision on modernising empty property rate relief at the end of last year following a period of consultation earlier in the autumn. The government heeded the advice of the CBI in terms of retaining the full exemption from empty property rates for protected buildings and in extending relief for companies is liquidation to those in administration. But the government has refused to consider amending its proposed periods of relief for both industrial and non-industrial property. From April this year vacant non-industrial properties will receive 100% relief from business rates for only three months and industrial property for only six months after which full rates must be paid. The CBI has called on the government to monitor the effect of these changes on a range of indicators including rates of development and rental values as well as vacancy rates. Chancellor announces proposals for a local supplementary business rateThe Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the government would legislate to allow councils to levy a supplement on top of the business rate as part of his pre-Budget Report in October. The idea was recommended by Sir Michael Lyons in his review of local government finance, published in March. The government's proposals are set out in a white paper and highlight a number of safeguards for business which address some of the concerns expressed by the CBI in the lead up to the pre-Budget Report. The proposals state that a supplement would have to be spent on specific economic development projects and would be capped to two pence on top of the Uniform Business Rate. Councils would also be required to ballot if the business contribution constituted more than a third of the total project cost. In order to reduce complexity only upper tier authorities would be given the power to levy a supplement. The CBI welcomed government proposals for recognising that business is not prepared to give councils unfettered authority to raise business rates. The CBI maintains that businesses should have a vote on all proposals and will seek further assurances from the government that their proposed safeguards will work in practice. If you would like to be involved in the CBI’s work on supplementary business rates please contact Luke Jouanides on 020 7395 8045.Key issues in summaryFor the latest CBI thinking on planning issues, see our business summaries.If you need free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software or help with PDF documents, go to the Adobe Accessibility site at http://access.adobe.com Email us if you have accessibility requirements. Click on this link to go to the Policy Work page. |
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