MAJOR transport, health and community projects will get a funding boost under new powers to be adopted in Oxford, council chiefs have said.

Oxford City Council will be among the first in the country to take on new powers that will tax developers to pay for major projects across the city.

At present, developer cash must go on “section 106” measures to soften the impact of specific developments, such as a community centre in a new housing estate.

The new “community infrastructure levy” (CIL) cash can be spent on projects anywhere in the city, allowing the council to pool cash and fund major multi-million pound schemes.

But a leading planning consultant warned the move could stop cash-strapped developers bringing homes and other plans forward.

The council is among the first in the UK seeking to adopt the powers by next May.

All councils must have the regime in place by 2014, as part of major planning reforms.

Projects the city council is bidding to get off the ground include: A link road between the A40 and A44 east of the A34 as part of the Northern Gateway housing and business development, to cut congestion at Peartree. Cost: £4.7m New pedestrian and cycle links in the West End, including two-way cycling on one-way roads and a facility to park and repair cycles. Cost: £890,000.

Expansion of Peartree park and ride to add 500 spaces to the existing 850. Cost: £3.6m.

Improvements to the public space at Gloucester Green in the city centre such as landscaping to encourage more cultural events. Cost: £1.66m.

New bridges over the River Thames at Jackdaw Lane and Oxpens. Cost £4.65m Council executive board member for city development Colin Cook said: “It gives us greater flexibility – so many projects don’t come to fruition because there isn’t enough money to get them off the ground. They need that extra shove.”

Under the scheme, the council will charge developers per square metre, a proposed £100 per square metre for shops and homes. And more developments will pay under the new system, a council report says, as payments only currently apply to larger developments.

The report says the new scheme “is expected to have a positive economic effect on development”.

But Chris Wilmshurst, a partner in Oxford’s Kemp & Kemp Property Consultants, said it could put developers off in a city that already suffers a housing shortage.

He said: “The aims are laudable but the effects have not been carefully thought through at a time when we are building fewer houses.

“We need to put roofs over people’s heads and I think this is not going to help that process.”

The Government has argued the system will give developers greater certainty over what they will have to pay instead of the negotiating typical of section 106 agreements.

Oxford Civic Society chairman Peter Thompson said: “There is the possibility there will be more money available and having more flexibility as to how it’s spent is going to be an improvement.”

But the council will have to take great care in ensuring cash goes on the right projects and areas affected by new developments do not miss out, he said.

Five councils have adopted the system including Portsmouth City Council, which took on the powers in April.

Its director of regeneration Kathy Wadsworth said the council hopes it will bring in needed cash for major flood defences.

She said: “Section 106 was related to the actual development – now we have the flexibility to spent it where we need it.”