More than £1 million for Shropshire towns and parishes from housing develoment money

More than £1 million is to be handed out to towns and villages across Shropshire – part of the money that property developers pay when building homes in the county.

File photo dated 02/10/12 of an estate agent's sold sign outside a property. Detached homes have piled more than Â£24,000 on to their value typically since around the start of the lockdown, analysis has found. PA Photo. Issue date: Monday October 26, 2020. Several housing market reports have pointed to a mini-boom as the housing market has reopened for business - and those behind the new research said the push for larger properties as buyers search for more space appears to be driving this growth. See PA story MONEY Detached. Photo credit should read: Chris Ison/PA Wire.

The Community Infrastructure Levy is spent on infrastructure that is needed to support the new residential development.

Towns and parishes are given a proportion of the money – 25 or 15 per cent depending on how many new houses have been built, and whether or not they have a Neighbourhood Plan in place.

The rest is used by Shropshire Council for strategic infrastructure.

Amounts of CIL funding going to each area ranges from more than £300,000 to Shrewsbury, where there has been an explosion of new development, to parishes such as Chirbury and Cardington that will receive just a few hundred pounds.

Each area has to show that the money is being used to support the local community.

Shropshire Council makes the Neighbourhood Fund payments once a year in April to coincide with precept payments. This year is is expected the funds will be distributed on or around April 22.

The larger towns in the county are getting the biggest sums including Bridgnorth which will receive almost £30,000, Market Drayton, £44,000 and Whitchurch and Ludlow, £40,000 with Ellesmere getting almost £20,000. Whitchurch Rural also gets £42,000.

Shifnal,which has seen a lot of development, gets more than £101,000 and the village of Whittington, £64,000 while Oswestry, the second largest town in Shropshire gets just £13,600.

Thanks to housing developments other villages receiving larger sums include Great Ness and Little Ness receiving almost £42,000, Hinstock £19,000 and Cockshutt near Ellesmere which will receive more than £13,000.

Kinnerley gets £10,000, Ludford, £18,000, Prees, more than £31,000,Ruyton-X1-Towns, £12,000 Selattyn and Gobowen, £38,000, St Martins, almost £28,000 and Weston Rhyn, £10,000.

The importance of having a Neighbourhood plan is highlighted by Shropshire Council in its letter to town and parish councils announcing the Cil funding.

It says that 25 per cent of the total Cil liability is paid where there is an adopted, formal, Neighbourhood Plan or Neighbourhood Development Order.

However those areas with no adopted formal Neighbourhood Plan have just 15 per cent of the Cil funding paid by the developers.

"Town and parish councils are expected to work closely with the local community, Shropshire Council and any neighbouring town or parish councils to agree how best to use their Neighbourhood Fund to support development," planning officer, Gary Evans told councils."