The government has confirmed that it is still considering introducing a new Infrastructure Levy partly to replace Section 106 agreements.  In a response earlier this week to a House of Lords Built Environment committee on housing delivery, the government said it is “exploring the introduction of a new infrastructure levy, which will replace Section 106 planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy”.

The levy was first proposed in 2020 as part of the government’s Planning White Paper, which has been on the back-burner since Michael Gove took over as housing secretary and his department was rebranded to focus on levelling up.

The proposed levy, first proposed in 2020 as part of the government’s Planning White Paper, has been criticised by the National Housing Federation which argued that it could mean the return of “bolt-on estates” in areas “that no one wants to live in”, whilst the Chartered Institute of Housing claimed that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the new levy would deliver more affordable housing.