St Modwen has won a fresh legal tussle over infrastructure payments that were holding up the £750m redevelopment of the former MG Rover site at Longbridge, near
Following a heated planning inquiry last month, Planning Inspector Andrew Jeyes upheld an appeal by St Modwen and agreed that the firm did not have to pay a £145,000 infrastructure tariff to the council for an empty office building on the
The council had been seeking the payment from Longbridge for infrastructure improvements in return for granting a change in planning permission to enable the
St Modwen argued that it could not afford to make the payments in the current economic climate, and that if it was forced to do so, the office building would be unprofitable.
Mike Murray, senior development surveyor for St Modwen, said the appeal decision meant it could now “provide certainty for potential occupiers and move closer to delivering on our aim of creating 10,000 new job opportunities at Longbridge.”
The latest fall-out comes after the two parties had earlier reached agreement on tariff payments following a long-running impasse.
At the end of 2008 the public inquiry into Birmingham council’s Longbridge Area Action Plan was suspended to allow St Modwen, the owner of the 470-acre site at the heart of the project, the council failed and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands to reach agreement on a rewording of the AAP aimed at ensuring the tariff took into account the downturn in the property market.
St Modwen lodged plans in June 2008 for 2,000 new homes, a new town centre, 30 acres of parkland and 1.8m sq ft of office and warehouse space.
paul.norman@estatesgazette.com
