PEOPLE are being asked to have their say on how much money should be given by developers for new community facilities.

Residents, businesses, parish councils and community groups are being asked their views on a plan to charge developers £160 per square metre for every private home built to create new community facilities in Basingstoke and Deane.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is introducing the ‘community infrastructure levy’ which is a new charge that the authority can apply to developers to fund infrastructure, including schools and community, sport and recreation facilities and transport schemes.

Following two consultation periods and a public examination by a planning inspector, the charge is expected to be introduced in April 2015. The borough council currently receives money from developers for facilities specifically related to individual development schemes.

The new charge will be used to raise funding to go into a ‘pot’ that can be used for bigger schemes such as new roads.

Developers of the larger sites in the borough’s draft Local Plan will be charged £105 per square metre of floor area built. All other sites in Basingstoke and Tadley will be required to pay £75 per square metre built and across the rest of the borough developers will need to pay the £160 per square metre built.

Commercial development will also be subject to the levy, with developers paying between £60 and £240 per square metre of floor space.

Councillor Mark Ruffell, Cabinet member for planning, said: “We have considered carefully how high to set the charges. It is vitally important that the developers building new homes contribute to infrastructure improvements.

“We have taken expert advice to ensure that we don’t set the charges, or the affordable homes figure, so high that developments become unviable.”

He added: “Our priority remains to have the infrastructure improvements being provided at the time that new homes are being built and to provide homes for the borough’s residents who might otherwise not be able to afford them. We are keen to hear what people think of our proposals.”

For scheme details and an application form visit basingstoke.gov.uk/go/cil.