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What is the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)?
The Community Infrastructure Levy is a planning charge, introduced by the Government through the Planning Act 2008, to provide a fair and transparent means for ensuring that development contributes to the cost of the infrastructure that it will rely upon, such as schools and roads.
CIL is a way of collecting contributions from development towards the provision of infrastructure required to support growth within the District. It is a tariff applied per square metre of new development and varies by scale, use and geography. CIL is calculated alongside the granting of planning permission and is payable on commencement of development in line with Bradford Council’s CIL Instalments Policy.
Further information regarding CIL can be found on the planning portal website. Detailed guidance on CIL can be found on the government’s National Planning Practice Guidance for CIL.
Roles and Responsibilities
The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (CBMDC) is the ‘Charging Authority’ for CIL and is responsible for setting CIL rates, for administering the collection of CIL and allocating expenditure for CIL.
The CIL Regulations (Regulation 59) require CBMDC to pass a proportion of CIL receipts directly to Town and Parish Councils where the development takes place. According to the CIL Regulations (as amended), for areas where there is no neighbourhood plan in place this sum will equate to 15% of CIL receipts from development within their administrative area up to a maximum of £100 per Council tax dwelling per year. This rises to 25% (uncapped) where an adopted neighbourhood plan is in place.
Town and Parish Councils (local councils) are recipients of neighbourhood CIL funds under the CIL Regulations and are responsible for spending their CIL funds and reporting on CIL receipts and expenditure each year (See Appendix A for list of Town and Parish Councils).
How much CIL money will the Parish Council receive?
The amount of CIL monies paid annually will depend on the amount of CIL received by the CBMDC, this depends on whether there has been development granted and commenced in the local area and if that development is granted an exemption or relief from some / all of the CIL charge. The amount is also dependent on the presence of a Neighbourhood Plan and the number of existing dwellings in the local council area.
Where development crosses local council / neighbourhood area boundaries, each area receives a share of the neighbourhood proportion of CIL, based on the amount of the development within their administrative area, up to the annual limit for their area
It should also be noted that the payment of larger CIL sums may be subject to the CBMDC’s CIL Instalments Policy, which in turn will delay payment to the Town or Parish Council.
You can see the council’s interactive CIL charging zone map to find out the charge rate that applies to your area. Parish and Town Council boundaries can be viewed against CIL zones by using the layers list.
Neighbourhood Plans & CIL
CIL is not only designed to pay for infrastructure needed to support growth, it is also designed to incentivise communities to welcome and promote development within their areas. Where development is in an area covered by a Neighbourhood Development Plan, such as in Burley in Wharfedale, the proportion of CIL receipts received Parish Council increases to 25%.
When will the Parish Council receive CIL monies?
Charging authorities and local councils are free to decide the timing of neighbourhood funding payments themselves. In the absence of such an agreement, regulation 59D specifies that the neighbourhood portion of levy receipts must be paid every 6 months, with the portion related to CIL received between 1 April and 30 September to be paid by 28 October and the portion for the second half of the financial year being paid by 28 April.
Financial Implications
Town and Parish Councils must make arrangements for the proper administration of their financial affairs as set out in Section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972. They must have systems in place to ensure effective financial control in accordance with the Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2011. These requirements also apply when dealing with the neighbourhood funding payments under the CIL.
The relevant local council are responsible for spending CIL funds within 5 years of their receipt or run the risk of the CBMDC recovering the charge. If a local council has not applied the funds in accordance with the regulations, then CBMDC may serve a notice on the local council requiring it to repay some or all of the receipts that had been transferred to them. CBMDC will then be required to spend any recovered funds in the local council’s area.
If the local council do not spend their CIL within five years of receipt, the CIL Officer may send a repayment notice. Exceptions may be made if the local council can show that they’ve allocated their CIL income to a particular project for which they are accumulating funds before spending. In the event of a local council wishing to hold CIL funds for longer than 5 years the CIL officer must be notified as soon as possible.
Spending CIL Neighbourhood Funds
Parish and Town councils can spend their CIL receipt on a range of infrastructure and maintenance projects providing they are compliant with their statutory powers and duties.
The CIL Regulations state that a local council must use CIL receipts passed to it to support the development of the local council’s area, or any part of that area, by funding
(a) the provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure; or
(b) anything else that is concerned with addressing the demands that development places on an area.
‘Infrastructure’ is broadly defined in the Town and Country Planning Act 2008.
There are typically three broad categories of infrastructure:
- physical infrastructure – highways, transport links, cycleways, energy supply, water, flood alleviation, waste management
- social infrastructure – education, health, social care, emergency services, art and culture, sports halls, community halls
- green infrastructure – parks, woodlands, play areas, public open space
This gives local councils considerable freedom to spend their proportion of CIL on the things that address the impacts of development on their area. Notwithstanding this freedom, there are a number of factors that should be considered when developing a CIL spending plan.
CBMDC has published a CIL regulation 123 list, which sets out a list of those projects or types of infrastructure that it intends will be, or may be, wholly or partly funded through the CIL. Parish and Town Councils are able to spend their portion of CIL on a wider range of things (other than infrastructure) than the rest of the levy, provided that they meet the requirement to ‘support the development of the area’ within the regulations. While local councils are not required to spend their neighbourhood funding in accordance with the CBMDC’s priorities, they will be expected to work closely with the CBMDC to agree priorities for spending the neighbourhood funding element and consider publishing their priorities for spending the neighbourhood funding element.
CBMDC will also publish annually, an Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) in line with regulations. This can be found on Bradford Council’s website. It should be noted that CIL Regulation 123 list has now been replaced with a requirement for local authorities to provide an annual IFS by 31 December each year. The IFS must set out a statement of the projects which the authority intends to be funded by CIL (the “infrastructure list”).
The Parish Council has adopted its own Community Infrastructure Levy Policy which includes an application form for any community groups wishing to apply for CIL funding for their own projects.
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Reports
Reporting Requirements
CBMDC must report on the amount of CIL received and spent within their area for any financial year by the 31st December. Such information will be published on Bradford Council’s website.
To ensure transparency Town and Parish Councils must publish each year via their website:
- their total CIL receipts
- their total expenditure
- a summary of what the CIL was spent on; and
- the total amount of receipts retained at the end of the reported year from that year and previous years
This should occur no later than the 31st December following the reporting year (1st April to 31st March).
The Parish Council’s annual CIL reports can be viewed below:
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