§ Mr. Nichollsasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government, in view of his proposal to allow an increase in the private building ratio and the prevailing uncertainty concerning the future of the development charge, imposed under the Town and Country Planning Acts, which is acting as a deterrent to private building, if he will now make a statement about his intentions in the matter of the charge.
§ Mr. H. MacmillanThe Government are considering whether the Parts of this Act relating to compensation, depreciation of land values and development charges should be modified or altered; but the subject is a complicated one and there is no easy solution. Even if the Government decide that amending legislation should be introduced, it will hardly be possible to do so this session.
Meanwhile anyone who holds or can get a licence enabling him to build himself a house would be ill-advised to defer starting in the hope that if he waits for a time he may avoid payment of development charge As I said in reply to the hon. Member for Durham (Mr. Grey) on 27th November, development charges on new housing are part and parcel of the whole system embodied in the Act; and the question whether any alteration can be made in the matter of these charges must, therefore, await the Governments review of the Act and Parliament's decision.