The Mayor of London intends to implement his London Wide Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) from the beginning of April 2012 which means that any development that receives planning permission after the first of the month is liable for the charge.
The charge is intended to raise £300 million towards the delivery costs of Crossrail. It will be applied to all new commercial development of 100 square meters or more or which includes the creation of one or more dwellings, even where these are less than 100 square meters, anywhere in Greater London.
The amount will vary according to which borough the development falls in. In general terms, the central and south west boroughs of Camden, City of London, City of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth, will pay the highest charge of £50 per square meter.
Boroughs in the west, north west and south east such as Barnet, Brent, Bromley, Ealing, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Redbridge, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets, will pay the middle level charge of £35 per square meters.
And the boroughs to the south and in the east/north east of the city including Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Croydon, Enfield, Havering, Newham, Sutton, and Waltham Forest will pay the lowest charge of £20 per square meters.
'This will see a step change in the costs of development across London as well as the introduction of a whole new vocabulary. If the Mayor introduces his levy on 01 April as intended, all applications meeting the size criteria submitted from this week will be subject to the new charges,' said Adam Pyrke, head of London planning at Colliers International.
'Those major applications submitted since the turn of the year are already liable and so developers need to be prepared to account for these additional costs in their development appraisals and introduce the correct procedures to ensure the levy is paid on time,' he explained.
SOURCE Mayor of London
