Agenda item

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was a mechanism to allow local planning authorities to raise funds from some forms of development in order to contribute towards infrastructure costs.  Under the CIL Regulations, the Council was a ‘charging authority’ and, through the Local Plan, was responsible for enabling growth and securing infrastructure funding for providers in-line with the Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP).

Since April 2016, the Council had been collecting CIL contributions, which totaled £1,058,313.  The first round of CIL allocations had been held and the total awarded was £692,901.  Four out of 10 applications were successfully awarded funding.  It was noted that no CIL was awarded from the Bexhill Local CIL.  The report identified the current bidding process, criteria and how strategic CIL was allocated.  Rother was one of the first local authorities in Sussex to allocate CIL income through a bidding process.

The Council was required to produce two annual reports namely a CIL Monitoring and Infrastructure Progress Report (IPR).  The IPR outlined which infrastructure items had been allocated funding as well as identifying infrastructure priorities for the next year.

The Government had introduced a number of significant legislative changes on 1 September 2019 and had also revised the Planning Practice Guidance.  According to new regulations, the Council’s existing ‘Regulation 123 List’ and IPR would be replaced by the Infrastructure Funding Statements (IFS).  The IFS would need to be published by the end of the year for the previous financial year; the first year being December 2020.  The purpose of the IFS was to improve transparency on how CIL and Section 106 monies were spent.  The updated IDP informed the IFS and highlighted the critical infrastructure required to deliver the development quantum detailed in the Local Plan.  It was a living document and would be continually updated.

The local CIL or neighbourhood proportion was payable to Parish and Town Councils (P&TC) at 15% (or 25% where a Neighbourhood Plan was made).  The Council retained 5% to cover administration expenses. The neighbourhood portion could be spent by P&TCs as long as the proposed infrastructure met the requirement to ‘support the development of the area’.  The Council had the authority to claw-back unspent CIL funding from P&TCs, if they had not spent it on development projects within five years of receipt.

It was previously agreed that spending decisions could be made once CIL contributions had reached the minimum requirement of £250,000.  This figure was considered too low as it did not allow the Council to consider larger sums of funding to bring forward major projects such as Bexhill Leisure Centre, High Speed Rail or improvements to the A21.  It was recommended that the bidding process be delayed until after the IFS had been published.  Critical infrastructure projects identified in the IDP would be given priority for CIL funding.

After deliberation, Cabinet endorsed recommendations 1) to 4) as detailed in the report.  It was proposed that recommendation 5) be reworded as follows: a Cabinet Community Infrastructure Levy Steering Group (CILSG) be established to consider draft Terms of Reference for the allocation and spending of the Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy money and report back to Cabinet at the meeting scheduled to be held on 6 April 2020.  The initial CILSG to consist of the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Strategy and Planning and the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Bexhill Affairs.  It was also recommended that recommendation 6) be deleted.

Cabinet agreed that CIL receipts enabled the Council to achieve much needed additional funding for key infrastructure projects across the district.

RECOMMENDED: That:

1)     the Infrastructure Progress Report be replaced with the Infrastructure Funding Statements from December 2020 in-line with the updated Regulations;

2)     the Section 106 collection monitoring be incorporated into the Infrastructure Funding Statements;

3)     all new Section 106 Agreements include the provision for a reasonable fee, equating to 5% of the monetary value of each head of term where a financial contribution is secured and a flat fee of £500 for each non-financial head of term, to help provide resources for the new monitoring requirements;

4)     bidding for the strategic Community Infrastructure Levy be paused until after the publication of the Infrastructure Funding Statements in December 2020;

5)     a Cabinet Community Infrastructure Levy Steering Group (CILSG) be established to consider draft Terms of Reference for the allocation and spending of the Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy money and report back to Cabinet at the meeting scheduled to be held on 6 April 2020.  The initial CILSG to consist of the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Strategy and Planning and the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Bexhill Affairs; and

That the following recommendation not be supported:

6)     the Bexhill local bidding process be paused pending the outcome of the Community Governance Review in relation to the creation of a Town Council for Bexhill-on-Sea.