Agenda item

Overview of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) position at other East Sussex Local Authorities and their Strategic CIL Award Processes

Minutes:

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Steering Group considered the report of the Head of Strategy and Planning which set-out the differences between the current CIL positions at other local authorities in East Sussex and sought Members’ views on whether amendments should be made to the Council’s Instalment Policy (IP).

 

Members noted that at present, as well as Rother District Council (RDC), Lewes and Eastbourne Councils and Wealden District Council operated CIL.  Hastings Borough Council did not operate CIL and solely relied on Section 106 agreements.  Brighton and Hove City Council were scheduled to commence CIL on 5 October 2020.  Appendix A to the report detailed the different operating procedures for the East Sussex local authorities.

 

The following salient points were noted:

 

·         Only RDC set an amount for which the bidding process would be triggered, the trigger amount was set at £250,000.  In addition, only RDC applied an eligibility criteria of a minimum total project cost to bid for Strategic CIL funding which equated to £100,000.

·         All authorities (except RDC – decision making panel) required Cabinet or full Council to approve bids.

·         Only Eastbourne and Lewes Councils divided Strategic CIL into spending pots for different infrastructure.

·         Lewes District Council had updated their IP (Eastbourne would be shortly).

 

The Council’s IP was formally adopted in December 2015 and required payments to be made at set times following commencement of development.  Failure to pay on time meant that the Applicant would forfeit their right to pay in instalments.  New regulations gave local authorities discretion, for a limited period only to defer CIL payments for small and medium sized developers (SMEs) without imposing additional costs.  Therefore CIL payments must be paid during the “material period” (22 July 2020 to 31 July 2021).  This only related to SMEs with an annual turnover not exceeding £45m. 

 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was considered prudent to potentially amend the IP to assist in easing the financial pressures on SMEs during these unprecedented times and to encourage housing delivery across the district.  In-line with new Government regulations, the Council had published a CIL Deferral Request (DR) Application Form on the website; to date only one form had been submitted.

 

A comparison of the local authorities IPs was provided, as follows:

 

Authority

60 days of commencement 100% payment

Instalments

Rother

£50,000

£50,000 - £300,000: 50% in 120 days, 50% in 360 days

 

£300,000: 30% in 60 days, 35% in 420 days, 35% within 660 days (22 months)

Lewes

£50,000

Up to £15,000: total amount within 60 days

 

£15,000 - £50,000 20% within 60 days, 80% within 180 days

 

£50,000 - £200,000: 10% within 90 days, 50% within 270 days, 40% within 360 days

 

Over £200,000: 10% within 180 days, 50% within 360 days, 40% within 540 days

Wealden

£500K in 30 days

£500,000- £1,500,000: 60% in 30days, 40% in 52 weeks

 

£1,500,000+: 60% 30 days, 20% 52 weeks, 20% 104 weeks

Eastbourne

ALL

CIL must be paid within 60 days of the commencement of development.

 

Clarity was sought on whether there was evidence that the current procedure was causing problems for existing planning applications or whether amending the IP presented more risk to the Council.  The Planning Policy Manager advised that to date only one CIL DR had been submitted, only a couple of telephone enquiries had been received and that the IP could be amended without formal consultation.  Some other local authorities had amended their IP as they felt it would be welcomed by developers and would help to stimulate housing delivery.  It was clarified that the collection of CIL payments would be extended only, therefore there would be limited risk to the Council.

 

As only one formal enquiry had been received and there was limited risk to the Council, the CIL Steering Group agreed that no amendments be recommended to the Council’s IP at this time, however the policy would be kept under review.

 

RESOLVED: That no amendments be recommended to the Council’s Instalment Policy but kept under review.

Supporting documents: