Latest news with #CommunityInfrastructureLevy
BBC News
03-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Community groups in Surrey invited to apply for funding
Community groups in Surrey are being invited to submit bids for money to fund projects which will improve the lives of local and Ewell Borough Council is asking organisations to bid for neighbourhood funds raised by the Community Infrastructure Levy (CILs).Last year, the council issued about £330,000 for projects, including footpath improvements at Epsom's Hogsmill Local Nature Reserve and tree planting in Waterloo Road, as well as a new club house in Old Schools Lane, Ewell, to provide a home for community for this year's bids can be submitted until 15 June. The CILs are fees paid by developers to help local councils deliver the required infrastructure when new developments are Peter O'Donovan, chair of the licensing and planning policy committee, said: "I hope that as many local community groups and organisations as possible take this opportunity to bid for funds for community projects and initiatives that can improve quality of life for residents in Epsom & Ewell."The Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy Fund offers us the chance to deliver projects that have a real impact on our communities."By applying for this funding, community groups and organisations can help ensure that money raised through local development is spent on projects that are important to residents here in Epsom & Ewell."Information about the criteria which needs to be met in order to apply can be found on the council's website.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Liberal Democrats become biggest Wiltshire party
The Liberal Democrats have become the biggest party on Wiltshire Council, but have not won enough seats to take overall local elections, which took place on 1 May, saw the Conservatives lose control of Wiltshire after 25 years of power, having won 37 seats Liberal Democrats won 43 seats in the election, saying the future is "golden".Half of the total of 98 seats needed to be acquired in order to be a majority, meaning that no one council has overall control. "I think the future is golden," said Brian Mathew, the Liberal Democrat MP for Melksham and Devizes."Often people often vote against a party rather than for a party if I'm being totally honest," continued Mr Mathew."The Tories have got tired. There's a lot of angry people out there too who are fed up with things generally and I think that's part of the reason."Only 36.19% of people voted on Thursday to decide who should run the local authority which is responsible for roads, bins and adult social care. The former Wiltshire Council leader, Conservative Richard Clewer, who has been re-elected, said: "It's really frustrating to be going from controlling the council that was under control."That was delivering outstanding children's services, all the rest of it. We were performing on every level."It's some cold comfort that if you look at the results across the country we seem to have done better than most other Conservative councils. But that really isn't saying anything at the scale of what's happened."It creates some very significant questions Wiltshire needs to answer over the next few days." Ian Thorne, the council's Lib Dem leader, said several key issues keep coming up when he talks to people in the county."We have to find more money to deal with the potholes," he said."This council is actually under-invested in terms of it's borrowing."We need to look at whether we can take any money from CIL - the Community Infrastructure Levy - and we need to look at other sources."That's a huge challenge and none of this is easy, otherwise it would have happened already."The second big issue is around stopping unwanted development - that may mean a new local plan."Mr Thorne is due to announce his new cabinet at the weekend. Ten Reform UK councillors have been elected along with seven only remaining councillor in Wiltshire is Ricky Rogers who has been representing Fisherton and Bemerton Village for 35 years and counting."I can't thank people enough for supporting me individually," he said."There was a lot of resentment against the government, who they feel are not doing things correctly and not doing things quick enough."And that reflected in their protest."The makeup of Wiltshire Council is now 43 Liberal Democrats, 37 Conservatives, 7 Independents, 1 Labour, and 10 Reform UK.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
House building costs highest in London - Centre for London finds
The cost of building homes in London is more than in other parts of England, think tank analysis has Centre for London reported the upfront cost of constructing 88,000 new homes a year, the government's annual target for the capital, is roughly 43 times higher than the equivalent target in the West research was shared at the centre's 2025 housing summit on Wednesday, where Sem Moema, chair of the London Assembly housing committee, said: "If we don't fix the housing crisis, the character of the city will be extinguished."A Mayor of London spokesperson said: "The mayor will continue to work in partnership with the government to deliver more genuinely affordable homes." 'Closing schools' Separate polling by the think tank, which is politically independent, found 60% of Londoners surveyed had considered moving out of the capital due to housing costs rising over the past 12 months, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Moema, a Labour member representing Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest at City Hall, said: "I see in my own constituency the hollowing out that occurs and continues to occur, when the failure to fix the housing crisis for a decade and a half changes the character of our city, and not for the better."In all three boroughs, we're being forced to consider closing schools, because there are basically no children left in northeast London. "Families can no longer afford to own or even rent properties in my boroughs."Centre for London's research found the crisis is being exacerbated by the upfront cost to developers being at least £2.2bn, if they built enough homes to hit the government's target in the estimate was produced by combining the costs associated with the Building Safety Levy, Section 106 agreements, the Community Infrastructure Levy and planning fees for local councils, according to the analysis. The figure in the West Midlands metropolitan county – which includes Birmingham – was only £50.6m, and only slightly higher in Greater Manchester at £61.3m. In the London borough of Wandsworth alone, which had the highest cost of any London council area, according to the LDRS, the estimate was £253.9m. 'Invest in capital' Ms Moema said: "We have a generation who will never get on to the property ladder independently."We need to confront this reality. As with climate change, the costs of not doing anything will be greater than the costs of further investment."A spokesperson for the mayor said: "The mayor is working hard to turn things around, building on a strong track record of delivering tens of thousands of genuinely affordable homes across the capital and more new council homes than any time since the 1970s." 'Ambitious solutions' Commenting on the Labour government's approach to tackling the housing crisis, Centre for London CEO Antonia Jennings said: "We've seen increased investment in the Affordable Homes Programme, planning reform which allow building on low-quality sections of the green belt and the new Renters Reform Bill. "But, these are only the very first steps."She added: "We urgently need ambitious solutions that respond to the scale of the challenges facing the capital. "The government must get behind London's leaders and invest in the capital to finally turn the corner on the housing crisis." The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has said meeting the housing challenge in London is a "crucial part" of its national mission to build 1.5m homes and kickstart economic government added that it had made "£200m available through the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land fund to strategic sites across the capital".Another £81m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund is also being given to Transport for London (TfL) to make improvements to Surrey Quays Station and "unlock more than 8,000 new homes in Southwark and Lewisham".
Evening Standard
30-04-2025
- Business
- Evening Standard
Staggering cost of meeting London's housing target revealed in new research
In its new research, the Centre for London found that the crisis is being exacerbated by the fact that the upfront cost to developers, if they built enough homes to hit the Government's target in the capital, would be at least £2.2bn. The estimate was produced by combining the costs associated with the Building Safety Levy, Section 106 agreements, the Community Infrastructure Levy and planning fees for local councils.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
E-bike hire scheme withdrawal 'a mess'
A councillor has described the withdrawal of an e-bike hire scheme in east Dorset six months after it was launched as "a mess". Dorset councillor Ray Bryan, who oversaw the original contract, said it was bad publicity to see the scheme come to an end, weeks after the council had finished spending millions of pounds on new cycleways in the area. The project offered 122 Beryl Bikes, operating from 47 bays across Wimborne, Colehill, West Parley, West Moors and Ferndown. Dorset Council said not enough people were renting the bikes, with many choosing to ride their own instead. The scheme was paid for with £240,000 from a Community Infrastructure Levy fund and £23,000 from a Transforming Cities fund, plus £224,000 from Beryl Bikes. In November 2024, Beryl Bikes told the council at the three-year break point in the contract it would be pulling out of the area because it was "not viable". Mr Bryan said: "I can't tell you how damaging this has been in the east Dorset area. "People can't understand why this council has spent millions on providing cycleways and, within weeks of us having finished the cycleways, Beryl withdrew the service." He said Dorset Council was wrong to rely on information from Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) about the viability of the scheme and should have carried out its own checks. Councillors were told that, while the company looked at population figures, the age profile of the area appeared not to have been investigated. The area has one of the highest elderly populations in the country, while the bike scheme users are predominantly under 40. Wimborne councillor Shane Bartlett said the Beryl Bikes decision had been "hugely disappointing" and had not helped commuters. You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. E-bike hire scheme withdrawn due to low demand New e-bike hire scheme set to launch Dorset Council Beryl
