Planning and Property
Skills
Transport
Rail operators promise to
improve services
Earlier this month, transport operator FirstGroup took over the
TransPennine Express franchise in partnership with Rail North. At the
same time, Arriva commenced running the Northern franchise.
The two operators aim to deliver outstanding inter-city connections
across the North and into Scotland, providing an essential component
of the Northern Powerhouse.
Improvements will include:
■■ 500 new-build carriages introduced across both franchises.
A mix of new diesel and electric units on Northern and, on
TransPennine, 125mph intercity bi-mode trains (which run on
both diesel and electric)
Developer
levy throws
up doubts
Bradford Chamber has raised concerns over the proposed charges of
a new levy to assist with planning and development.
The Community Infrastructure Levy, an additional planning charge on
developers and land owners that was initiated a few years ago, was
designed to be ‘fairer and faster’, or so central government said at
the time. In practice though, many in the property and development
sector have said it raises as many questions as it answers.
Details about the scheme, which will be utilised in conjunction with
Section 106 agreements, and will not replace them, were considered
by the Property Forum, who drafted the Chamber’s response to a
recent consultation process.
The submission noted that the property markets of inner Bradford
and Keighley (as opposed to the full District) were not strong enough
to bear this additional charge, and that developers would simply
look elsewhere to build. A charge of £5 per sq m was proposed in the
consultation for those geographical areas, despite an independent
report saying this was unviable.
Bradford Property Forum’s Chairman, Steve McManus of Chartback
Developments, said:
“It is clear that the Council still is not listening to the advice of its own
advisors who report that housing development in certain areas of the
District cannot support a CIL charge, namely Bradford and Keighley.
Bradford Council, though, is continuing with its £5 per sq m in these
urban areas. This does not make sense. On the one hand, the Council
is promoting development in these urban areas yet, at the same
time, imposing a charge on these areas that will affect viability and,
therefore, the deliverability of these schemes.”
The national Planning Inspectorate will now appoint an inspector
to consider all responses and liaise with the local authority on
future implementation.
14
LOBBYING
York Central –
Chamber responds to
consultation
York Chamber has responded to the consultation
on plans to develop the land around the city’s
railway station.
Known as ‘York Central’, the site was designated an
enterprise zone last year and the local authority has
recently been seeking views on creating a mixed use
scheme of housing, office, leisure and retail. Views
of Chamber members were gathered via the city’s
Property Forum, run by the Chamber, and fed back to
the local authority.
The overall plans for the site have been welcomed,
but the response highlights the need to fill in several
missing gaps before it can move forward. The scheme
needs to be part of the still-to-be-agreed Local Plan –
but reaching a preferred scheme for the York Central
site should not hold up progress on the Local Plan;
more clarity is needed on the amount of housing
and office space to be created and a more detailed
assessment of matters such as remediation work and
infrastructure requirements is needed to determine
the viability of the development.
The Chamber has offered support to York Council in
the hope of driving the project forward.
O’Neill Associates’ Eamonn Keogh, who chairs York
Property Forum, said:
“Members of the Property Forum have a wealth of
experience on all aspects of development and we
welcome the opportunity to engage and collaborate
on this important project. Members at a recent
meeting did question how the housing numbers,
in particular, would stack up on such a site, and we
have a responsibility to feed that back to the project
directors, who we have also offered to meet up with.”
West & North
Yorkshire Chamber
of Commerce
Launch of Leeds
Digital Skills plan
Currently there are over 1,350 digital companies
based in Leeds v