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Community Infrastructure Levy faces an uncertain future
Published: 2010-03-10 08:56:04
The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) will come into force on April 6th 2010. Whether it will survive the general election is another matter: if the Conservatives get in, it could be axed.
"We understand that a Conservative Government would scrap CIL and non-site specific planning obligations," said law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, "and instead introduce a single unified local tariff applicable to all residential and non-residential development but at graded rates depending on the size of the development."
However, it added: "The reality is that this will be much closer to CIL than to the old system of section 106 Agreements."
Berwin Leighton Paisner has posted a guide to the operation of CIL, including the basis for implementation and charging, exemptions for planning permissions already granted and CIL's relationship to Section 106 Agreements.
Although there are provisions for appeals, the lawyers point out that it developers will probably end up paying more under CIL. "In earlier consultations on CIL the government always made clear that part of the intention behind CIL was to increase the contribution that developers would makes towards funding infrastructure. Although CIL liability across individual local authority areas will depend on how the charging schedule is drafted it should be assumed that the overall burden on development may increase."
But, as the CLG points out, it is not completely clear how the levy will work in practice. In particular, London boroughs' response to the introduction of CIL focuses on concerns about how the government proposes to reimburse boroughs for the costs involved in collecting CIL on behalf of the Mayor. "It is essential that boroughs do not lose out financially as a result of the introduction of CIL," said the CLG in its official response.
London boroughs point out that there are also capital-specific questions that remain unanswered. "It is essential," said the CLG, "that boroughs are able to continue using existing approaches for collecting developer contributions until such time as CIL can be seen to have worked and boroughs are able to make an informed choice as to whether they wish to adopt it. We believe that there should be no restrictions on S106 for at least five years."