There is a lesson to be learned from the building boom in Spain. In order to build on land in Spain most of the land needs to be reclassified from ‘rural’ to ‘urban’ before it can be built on.
The town hall, which already owns much of the land, holds the power to change land classification and it raises a tax on every new build and sells building licences. The town halls became so dependent on revenue from construction that if building stopped they would lose over half their income.
Being Spain, a second tax may well have been payable to the Mayor or the councillor in charge of planning as well as the political party to which they belonged. If this is true then an unbreakable bond has been formed, the interests of both the builder and the politician meet with the spending requirements of the town hall.
Now all they need to do is keep building.. . . . .
As reported in the Western Gazette during 2012.
A Conservative councillor has criticised proposed new planning policies that would see building developers face larger “taxes” in certain parts of south Somerset. Under the proposals a new levy of £150 per square metre would be payable by builders or developers of new land to SSDC from March 2013 .
The money is for infrastructure improvements.
A report from consultants commissioned by the council has recommended the levy is reduced to £32.00 per square metre for “key site areas” of land around Yeovil and Chard which include the Yeovil urban expansion site near East Coker. Conservative DC Mr Fysh said the “discounted rate” would mean developers would favour the sites around Yeovil and Chard but price out any developer wanting to build elsewhere in the district. He said the Lib Dem run SSDC proposals would mean developers would have to pay £22500 for the average three bed home across the district but just £4800 for the same property in the key site areas.
The council said no decision had yet been made to adopt the levy or on the rates charged.
To date there is no sign that central government is about to give large sums of money to councils for infrastructure projects associated with their new homes, hence the Lib Dem proposal and although they claim the money is for infrastructure we all know it will be used to prop up the council’s budget requirements.
Now all they need to do is keep building. . . . . .
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