Social Housing Relief - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

That seems to be the effect of the (complicated!) formula in Reg.50. I understand that the amending Regs that are expected "in the autumn" will include an amendment to Reg. 50 but I don't know what form the amendment will take. I suspect that it will provide clarification/simplification rather than change the principle.

Interesting point Gerard... My question would be: if Reg 49 doesn't define circulation/lift etc space of social housing schemes as dwellings, and you haven't created a specific charge category in your Charging Schedule for this type of use, then there would not be any charge? Am I making any sense?

The forms on the Planning Portal and guidance appears to set out clearly that: Gross internal floorspace is the internal area of the building, and should include rooms, circulation and service space such as lifts and floorspace devoted to corridors, toilets, storage, ancillary floorspace (e.g. underground parking) etc. Residential floorspace includes new dwellings, extensions, conversions, garages or any other buildings ancillary to residential use. In flatted developments, this includes communal entrances, landings etc and any related internal parking. See http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/1app/cil_guidance.pdf So I think people are trying to over-complicate with separating out servicing areas from actual units and indeed agree with Simon, what rate would you charge at! So in the case of a straightforward social housing scheme, all the floorspace would be subject to relief. I can see more difficulties where you have a genuinely mixed use scheme, social and market where entrance, lift, stairs etc are communal. I suppose in these circumstances the fair way to work it out would be to apportion communal areas in proportion to actual social housing/private floospace mix. I guess this may not often happen?

I'm all for keeping CIL as simple as possible, all of us however have to adhere to the Regulations. There is no discretion for LPAs in dealing with Social Housing Relief. The formula in Reg. 50 has to be used to calculate the relief. If the formula is worked through, it will be seen that a distinction is drawn between "the building" and "dwelling". The dwelling, in the case of flats is just the flats themselves. A person who worked on the Regs at DCLDG has confirmed to me that that is the intention. In terms of what would be charged for the common areas, that is easy. It would just be the residentail rate for the area where the flats are.

This is quite interesting. If this is the case Tony, would it be fair to charge all circulation space in a mixed use office/apartment block (assuming such things exist) at a residential rate? I wonder what the effect of this will be on building social housing in blocks? Could it change the way they are designed or even make building in high-rise blocks less cost effective than low-rise, privately accessed buildings? Is the figure of 25% of the floorspace on a 100% social housing scheme falling into the 'circulation/shared space' category the exception or the rule?

Tony I'm sure others would welcome some direct sight of any guidance from CLG to confirm what you are suggesting is what they said as I cannot believe that it was ever the intention to charge CIL on a social housing provider for floorspace they are only providing to access their housing units. I cannot find any guidance at all to suggest that gross internal floorspace should exclude these areas and indeed all the forms available suggest otherwise. To my mind the distinction in regulation 50 between "buildings" and "dwellings" is solely around the discounting of floorspace (which may be in buildings that are not dwellings) from the equation subject to date of its last use. I wonder whether the term "deemed net area" is confusing people. This is the area that results if existing floorspace is to be demolished it has nothing to do with deducting circulation space. Anyhow a few thoughts...still remain unsure where any shared space between a social and private scheme would fit in. In many cases that which results from s

I've just realised of course that we don't even have to look at the formula in Reg. 50. Reg. 49 defines what is social housing. It is one of two things. It's either a dwelling let on one of various forms of tenancy or a dwelling sold on a shared ownership basis. As communal/circulation areas in fllats would not be included in a tenancy agreement or a shared ownership arrangement (although rights would be granted to use them) they are not within the definition of social housing and therefore not eligible for relief.

What we can now be sure of is that the revised regulations provide absolutely no guidance on this issue whatsoever. I remain far from convinced that it was ever the intention to grant relief on social housing floorspace but still charge for lift shafts and circulation space in the same development. The idea that this would be charged at presumably private housing rate or some other use seems pretty bizarre. Please can someone from CLG or PAS respond on this issue.

Thanks for the replies. At the moment in my authority we are taking the cautious route and only counting the actual 'dwellings' as being eligble for relief until there is any further clarification because of the Reg 49 definition. Seems illogical though. I haven't looked in detail but on a 100% social housing scheme, if the authority allows discretionary charitable relief, an RP could apply for the relief that way for the circulation space if they meet all the criteria?!