Anger over ‘woolly’ PGS proposals

15 December 2006

PGS seen as an important new funding source

The Government has back tracked on its proposal for a planning gain supplement, saying the new means to lever in transport investment would only be introduced ‘if deemed workable’.
The news will come as a blow to local authorities which see the PGS as an important new source of funding for upgrading roads and transport to accompany new houses and jobs. Twelve months after the first consultation on the PGS, the Communities and Local Government select committee said last month there was ‘a huge amount of work to be done’ to make the PGS work.
The chancellor’s note of caution, and fresh consultation papers that were seen as woolly by local authority officers Surveyor spoke to – ‘posing more questions rather than providing answers’ said one, were likely to disappoint PGS proponents.
The chief concern over the PGS among local authorities was that there was no guarantee the money would be given back by the Treasury. But the chancellor pledged that, if the PGS could be made to work, that ‘at least 70%’ of the money would be hypothecated for local infrastructure, and would be ‘returned to the local authority area in which they were generated’.
Proposals went out to consultation on limiting the scope of Section 106 agreements – seen as a necessary preliminary to introducing the PGS so developers do not have to pay twice – but did not provide a clear way forward.
The principle of limiting Section 106 payments to the immediate physical environment of a development site conflicted with the Government’s desire for infrastructure to be planned on a more strategic basis.
John Deegan, County Surveyors’ Society president, said: ‘A combination of Section 106 agreements and some kind of tariff payments is needed to meet local infrastructure needs. ‘We want to be reassured that the funding we currently access is not reduced and ideally, is increased.’
The statement on progress on the PGS was part of Gordon Brown’s measures to tackle the capacity problems on parts of the UK’s transport network identified by Sir Rod Eddington.

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Anger over ‘woolly’ PGS proposals

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