IN THIS SECTION:

What we do

Community infrastructure levy

Land that has planning permission for development is far more valuable than land that doesn't.

For decades governments have attempted to introduce ways to tax the increase in land value that results from the granting of planning permission. We successfully fought off the previous government's initial attempt - planning gain supplement - and encouraged it to introduce a system based on tariffs.

This became the community infrastructure levy - more commonly known as CIL.

What's the issue

After a long time and a lot of frustration, we managed to encourage the previous government to introduce CIL regulations that answered most of our concerns. They were published just before the general election and the new government has its own ideas on how the planning system could be improved.

Why is it important

There was a threat that CIL could be dead in the water. The new government intimated that it might scrap CIL in favour of a single unified local tariff system. However, following detailed discussions with officials, CIL is here to stay, but with some hard fought modifications.

We have taken the opportunity to introduce the changes that we failed to do in the initial setting of the CIL regulations and ensure that CIL works as effectively as possible for the development industry. The Localism Act introduces some new elements of CIL, and we’re working hard to make sure that these measures do not undermine the principles of CIL, yet still work with the Government’s Localism agenda.

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What we're doing about it

Although the government, and ministers, have changed, the civil servants involved with planning are the same, and we have worked very closely with them over the years of planning reform.

We will continue to work with them, and our members, to ensure that the industry is involved in framing future changes to the planning system.

Expand this box for more information on our involvement, and successes, with CIL.

Our CIL working group was kept very busy responding in detail to the Communities and Local Government (CLG) consultations, working closely with other representative organisations to ensure that we were all pushing in the same direction.

During the course of this period we managed to considerably improve the regulations in the following ways:

inclusion of an exceptions process
a firm commitment to scale back planning obligations to prevent 'double charging' through CIL and section106 agreements
allowing local authorities to prudentially borrow against CIL receipts
charging CIL on the net increase in development
allowing for the payment of CIL in kind.

Despite these improvements, the regulations are not perfect. Our concerns about how CIL is apportioned between the different use classes have not been allayed and there is still a lack of detail on how local authorities will ensure that the infrastructure financed by CIL is delivered in a timely fashion. We hope to be able to address these concerns in the next set of changes.

We have been involved in the detail of the most recent set of amendments to be laid in Parliament, and will continue to be involved in discussions with officials about further changes including:

ensuring new permissions under S73 are exempted
ensuring that viability assessments are robust
encouraging developer involvement in the setting of charging schedules
introducing a sensible exceptions policy.

As CIL charging schedules are being created by local authorities, more and more unforeseen issues are arising. We are working closely with officials to try and ensure that the implementation of CIL is as efficient as possible. We are encouraging members to work with the Local Authorities in their area and to get involved with the setting of the schedules at the earliest opportunity.

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Planning contact

Ghislaine Trehearne

Senior Policy Officer

gtrehearne@bpf.org.uk

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BPF in the news - 13/01/12
Property Week - Power struggle: levy puts Battersea plans at risk

BPF Response: Community Infrastructure Levy
Detailed proposals and draft regulations for reform consultation

Press release - 13/07/11
Government urged to reject plans that could slash council infrastructure spending

BPF in the news - 06/07/11
Property Week - CIL amendment tabled

BPF in the news - 18/11/10

Property Week - 'Government commits to Community Infrastructure Levy'

Press release - 18/11/10

BPF welcomes changes to the Community Infrastructure Levy