The RPTI does not believe currently methods of land value capture are adequate. We believe that there should be a fairer way of sharing land value uplift between landowners and the community, to fund the housing and infrastructure the country needs.
It is also important to recognise that the main existing methods were only ever designed to mitigate the impacts of development. More comprehensive land value capture would require policy instruments designed specifically for that purpose.
Moreover, current approaches only capture a fraction of the total unearned uplifts in land value, often insufficient to mitigate the impact of development. Current methods generally attempt to capture uplift from developers, as opposed to landowners, to whom the main uplift accrues. This lies at the root of problems around viability negotiations.
The RTPI recommends conducting a comprehensive review of land value capture and local government finance. This should consider both improvements to existing methods of capturing developer contributions to mitigate the impacts of development, and new and more comprehensive systems. There should also be further steer from MHCLG and other departments about the relationship between infrastructure expectations from planning gain and infrastructure provided through general taxation.
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Draft Programme for Government 2024-2027 (RTPI NI Response)
RTPI response to ‘Proposed reforms to the NPPF and other changes to the planning system’
