CIL: the clock is ticking

As new 'deadlines' approach for the introduction of the Community Infrastructure Levy, have councils given themselves a health check? Stuart Shortman explains.

The Government originally intended that from 6 April 2014, district councils (in two-tier shire counties, unitary councils elsewhere) would have introduced the Community Infrastructure Levy(“CIL”) in their areas, thereby forcibly scaling down the role of planning agreements to those things not covered by CIL.

This was quite a challenging timescale and the Government has extended the timescale to 6 April 2015.

This has enabled councils who were seeking to introduce CIL to have a further year to get through the various consultative and examination in public processes, leading to adoption of CIL.

However, from the adoption of CIL, or by the revised fall-back date of 6 April 2015, whichever is the later, councils become constrained in their continued use of s106 planning agreements. These changes are designed deliberately to make things difficult for councils so as to encourage them to press ahead with CIL in their areas in the first place.

The key constraint is as follows:

Cumulative pooling of funds for specific items or types of “CIL” infrastructure becomes limited to five obligations each, (with counting having been deemed artificially to have started in respect of planning obligations entered into from 6 April 2010), and totted up when particular funding pools are closed, which will be either on adoption of CIL, or at the revised deadline of 6 April 2015, if earlier. If councils have already provided for more than five pooled obligations for a specific infrastructure project or type of infrastructure before the closing date, that is fine.

Councils who choose not to adopt CIL by 6 April 2015 may therefore start to become seriously at a disadvantage in obtaining for their new and existing residents certain development contributions to which they have become accustomed to receiving from further new developments. Planning permissions granted before the relevant deadline are not affected.

The way forward

Councils should understand how CIL affects them and the consequences, in their particular case, of the choice not to adopt CIL by the revised deadline of 6 April 2015.

Where they may potentially be impacted by the planning obligation pooling restrictions described above, councils should also seek advice about any ways available to them to mitigate such impact, so far as possible.

Stuart Shortman is a Solicitor at nplaw. Nplaw’s new web site,  is now live, and provides information on the experience and skills of its fee-earners and case studies illustrating the types of work and clients it has been engaged with recently.