Quick!

So how many of you have taken the trouble to read all of those documents we linked to yesterday?

How many of you saw this.........?

"3.275 For the purposes of information only, the contributions that form the s.106 package do not include any community infrastructure levy payable to the Mayor of London as this only becomes payable in respect of permissions granted after 1 April 2012. If permission for this application is not granted before this date due to delay in finalising eh s.106 agreement or the referral to the Mayor, the applicant is likely have to re-assess the overall scheme viability, which may lead to a revised scheme or s.106 package and a further assessment being required by officers before being taken back to planning applications committee."

Huh?

Well, let us explain. An S106 or section 106 is a type of planning agreement between a developer and a council. It makes provision for all sorts of lovely community things like social housing, health centres and the like. The sort of things, for example, that the West Ken and Gibbs Green estates element of this development are about.

Councils charge developers something called a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). For example, the Chelsea Barracks development netted Westminster Council a £2million CIL. H&F will recieve quite a chunk of change. However, the paragraph above is the planning officer pointing out to councillors that from April 1st, developments ALSO have to pay the Mayor's Community Infrastructure Levy, a new charge that Boris managed to force through in order to raise a few hundred million to essentially help pay for Crossrail. The budget for EC does not include the Mayor's CIL.....

Hammersmith and Fulham, therefore (and as we pointed out in recent blogs) are in something of a rush to get the S106 plan through and those pesky residents at WKE and GG are not helping matters. If they don't for whatever reason get the plan through, CapCo are liable for a very nasty new charge on the development, which may mean, as the officer points out, that CapCo will reconsider the whole masterplan and make changes to it. And who knows what they might do then eh? What with Chelsea and their deep pockets waiting in the wings. Not to mention Big Old Boris and his covetous eyes.

Do CapCo really want to proceed with the current plan? We don't know because it is our judgement that they will eventually find themselves in clover whatever the final outcome. But the clock is ticking for H&F on this development and with every new phase, we can see the motivations - the many motivations - behind their approach to the SB issue. And, we have to say it again, the weakening of Chelsea's position without those shares. They have to wait to see how things pan out now, rather than driving aggressively into the heart of the matter.