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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

When a new development like the Hampden Road development goes up the developer must pay a certain amount to the council called the Community Infrastructure Levy. Some 15% of this should stay in the community the development occurred in and it is supposed to be used on a variety of projects locally to enhance local infrastructure.

 Priorities can include:

  • Road and footpath improvements
  • Tree planting
  • New or improved play spaces and facilities
  • Community safety measures (eg CCTV, lighting)
  • New or improved cycling facilities
  • Traffic calming measures
  • Improvements to school grounds and buildings
  • The improvement of local facilities such as libraries, community centres or sports halls

The council are now consulting about how this ‘neighbourhood portion’ is to be spent. To give you an idea what we are talking about, this is from the relevant page in relation to how much has already been collected and how much may be if current developments go ahead:

CIL Area

Neighbourhood Portion of CIL Received

Additional CIL Funding Expected based on existing Planning Permissions *

Zone 4 (Harringay and Noel Park wards)

£249,440

£515,738

Zone 6 (Seven Sisters, St Ann’s and West Green wards)

£5,423

£110,203

Zone 6 is the gardens… It is not clear if the additional £0.5m is the total CIL expected for Zone 4 or the amount of the ‘neighbourhood portion’ we might expect in this area. I have asked Zena to clarify if she can and will come back to you on this.

This looks quite interesting and you have until 30th Nov to get your ideas in.

 

Tags for Forum Posts: cil, community infrastructure levy

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Are the council asking if we'd like a higher percentage of the CIL spent within the area of any development? Surely the answer is 'of course'! 50% sounds reasonable 

The payment of the CIL is an interesting issue.

The council is only obliged to pass 15% of CIL receipts to an area that doesn’t have a neighbourhood forum. Areas that do have one get 25%. So a good part of the western parts of the borough get to keep 25% of receipts and govern its spending. In the east, as things stand, it's 15% to be spent on our behalf by the Council after 'consultation' with ’the community’ (See attached map).

So, this is possibly another reason to look again at whether a neighbourhood forum for Harringay might be an idea.

Even without that, we should be mindful of the following in the regulations:

"The government does not prescribe a specific process for agreeing how the neighbourhood portion should be spent. Charging authorities should use existing community consultation and engagement processes. This should include working with any designated neighbourhood forums preparing neighbourhood plans that exist in the area, theme specific neighbourhood groups, local businesses (particularly those working on business led neighbourhood plans), and using networks that ward councillors use.” 

"Charging authorities should set out clearly and transparently their approach to engaging with neighbourhoods using their regular communication tools eg website, newsletters, etc. The use of neighbourhood funds should therefore match priorities expressed by local communities, including priorities set out formally in neighbourhood plans.”

We should be mindful that our ‘Area’as defined for CIL purposes includes most of the centre of Wood Green. Knowing how the Council like to splash out on Wood Green, we need to be careful that Harringay doesn’t get forgotten.

We should remember that the purpose of the CIL is to "address the demands that development places on an area". So we need to think about how the Hampden Road and Hawes & Curtis developments impact on Harringay and seek to get those specifically 'addressed'.

Looking at the borough more generally, I'm quite surprised at the CIL amounts showing across the borough Highgate is expected to get £1.5M, Alexandra/Muswell Hill £1M, Crouch End £800,000. Tottenham is only due for £170,000 and Northumberland Park, £70,000. Does this seem odd to anyone else? I thought most of the development is going to be in the East.

Attachments:

"Tottenham is only due for £170,000"

What about the Spurs stadium development. Surely that has to be worth more than £170k?

The E-W thing Hugh I attribute to differing land values... I think the CIL is set at a proportion of the development costs (?), and land is one massive variable component in this equation.

I saw the point about the Neighborhood Forum too...

A quick look at this and I think I've found the answer. I'm going to have to guess at the logic that underpins it in Haringey.

CIL rates are set by a council per sq metre of development. In Haringey they've been set at theree levels:

  • West - £265
  • Central- £165
  • East - £15

See pages 4 and 5 in attached document for map and more.

The regulations state that in setting rates, including differential rates, a council must take into account: 

  1. the desirability of funding from CIL (in whole or in part) the actual and expected estimated total cost of infrastructure required to support the development of its area, taking into account other actual and expected sources of funding
  2. the potential effects (taken as a whole) of the imposition of CIL on the economic viability of development across its area.

And further that the council have made every effort to ensure that a fair and logical approach has been taken to producing a charging schedule that establishes an appropriate balance between securing funding and not hindering development.

Based on this, we can only guess at the logic used by Haringey to get differential rates with such a gap. Whilst it's easy enough to be cynical about this, one can only assume that the rates have been set so as to attract development in the east and to capitalise on the attractiveness of the west. The borough-wide effect might be that desired, but the outcomes as far as local CIL distribution is concerned seem like rough justice.

Attachments:

"...but the outcomes as far as local CIL distribution is concerned seem like rough justice."

Yes and no, in as much as the other 75-85% of the CIL that does not remain specifically in that area can be used where ever the council may priorities. So, it may be (rightly if this happens) that the majority of the CIL collected across the borough goes into areas of deprivation to improve the infrastructure in that area. At least, I would hope this is what happens...

Yup, that's why I said The borough-wide effect might be that desired. So, yes, I've acknowledged that on a borough-wide basis the funding can be used as the Council see fit - and probably much more in the east than west. But on an area basis it results in Highgate having £1.5M to be spent by the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum and Northumberland Park getting £70k spent on its behalf by the Council.

So, parking that wee distraction of mine (apologies), back to Harringay!.

Ah, fair enough... Point taken.

There were additional section 106 deals, including money, that came out of the Spurs development but what they ended up with at the end I don’t know except it kept getting smaller and smaller

A Guardian article from 2014 had this:

The same story is repeated the other side of town, where Haringey awaits the momentous arrival of Tottenham Hotspur’s new £400m football stadium........the Section 106 contribution has been reduced from an agreed £16m to just £477,000 – a token contribution towards transport improvements.

An FOI request was submitted last year, but the answer was made in such a way and redacted to an extent that puts me off looking into it....but if anyone has a mind to.

Pathetic innit?

It is, but your pointing out that some funding continues to be collected via S106 probably explains the low levels of CIL funds for Tottenham et al. So thank you for that.

To get the 25% you need an Neighbourhood Plan in place, ie one that has been through a referendum and accepted. So only Highgate have that. The other neighbourhood forum areas get 15%.

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