Community infrastructure levy (CIL)

The community infrastructure levy (CIL) is a levy that local authorities can charge on developments in their area.

CIL income can be used to fund additional infrastructure required to support new development including roads, schools, green spaces and community facilities.

CIL represents a fundamental change from the current system of developer contributions through Section 106 (S106) planning obligations, which can be complex and time consuming.

While S106 will still be used for site specific measures required to make a development acceptable, the introduction of CIL means that the use of S106 will be limited.

The overall aim of these changes is to make the developer contributions system fairer, faster and more transparent than the previous system.

It is intended to give developers more certainty over costs and give councils and communities more choice and flexibility in how to fund infrastructure.

The council have an adopted CIL Charging Schedule and started charging CIL on 1 August 2013.

CIL Charging Schedule review

The Council undertook a review of its CIL Charging Schedule between 2018 and 2021.

Although the new Charging Schedule successfully passed independent examination, its content related to a Local Plan which has since been withdrawn, so the revised Charging schedule remains unadopted.  Therefore for 2013 Charging Schedule remains in force (with indexation).

Developer contributions guide

The council has now prepared guidance on the implementation of CIL.

The document is aimed principally at agents and developers who are involved in discussions on developer contributions on a regular basis.

It explains how CIL will work alongside other types of developer contributions, such as planning obligations or highway agreements, that may be necessary to make a proposal acceptable.

The guide draws together various strands of information into a single comprehensive document.

This is an iterative document which will be updated as new information becomes available.

The document is updated twice a year, in April to include details of the latest indexation to be applied in respect of the Solent Recreation Mitigation Strategy and Nutrient Neutrality and in November to advise on CIL indexation to be applied from 1 January.