Developers pay, Maidstone gains. Why do the Tories want to change that?
This week Maidstone Borough Council approved £3.53 million towards a new, purpose-built Heart of Kent Hospice and community palliative care hub in Linton. That money takes the hospice past a third of its £18.5 million target.
The money didn't come from council tax. It came from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which developers pay when they build. It means the people profiting from new housing help fund the hospices, schools, health hubs and roads that growing communities need.
The hospice is one part of a £13.8 million package agreed by Cabinet. It also includes:
the expansion of Maidstone Girls' Grammar School
improvements at Lenham Nursery School
a contribution to the One Maidstone Health Hub
upgrades to Staplehurst Community Centre and Bredhurst Village Hall
a new puffin crossing in Nettlestead
the creation of Maidstone East Park
In the same week, at their party conference in Birmingham, the Conservatives announced they would scrap CIL and Section 106 agreements. They would replace both with a vague "one stop" levy. They also boast that their changes would knock tens of thousands of pounds off what developers' new homes cost.
That money doesn't vanish. If developers pay less, communities get less. The Tories have offered no detail on how much the new levy would raise, who would decide how it is spent, or whether places like Maidstone would see a penny of it.
Councillor Tony Harwood, Liberal Democrat Cabinet Member for Planning Policy and Management, said:
"For years Maidstone residents have watched new estates go up while the GP surgeries, school places and investment in transportation they need lagged behind. CIL is how we make developers pay their share, and this week it's helping to build a new hospice for people at the end of their lives. Now the Conservatives want to scrap it and replace it with a scheme they can't explain, designed to let developers pay less. Every pound they knock off a developer's bill is a pound taken away from our schools, our health services and our community. Maidstone deserves better than that."
Residents have seen thousands of homes built across the borough. CIL is one of the few tools that makes developers contribute to the infrastructure that growth demands, and the Conservatives want to tear it up.
Liberal Democrats believe development must come with the infrastructure to support it, and that decisions about local priorities should be made locally.
To support the hospice appeal, visit Heart of Kent Hospice's Future Hospice page. Make a donation to Heart of Kent Hospice
