CIL is overly complex and could stifle development, says lobby group leader

"CIL is probably one of the most worrying aspects of development today," Peace said, speaking at a seminar in Cambridge. "The Government wants to kick start construction and building but CIL has the potential to actually stop development. It is an overly complex system with limited flexibility and, with hard economic trading conditions, CIL tariffs are in danger of being set too high, making development unviable."

"The point of CIL was to ensure the delivery of major infrastructure needs. We are in hard economic times and we possibly need to trim our expectations of infrastructure delivery, perhaps returning the bill to Central Government with housebuilders and developers paying a percentage back once construction has taken place," she said.

Peace has previously raised concerns over the implementation of CIL and urged Government to ensure councils do not introduce charges that will render development unviable.

"The CIL proposals we are seeing emerge are not being subjected to any credible viability test and so will make many schemes unaffordable and hold back much-needed development for years," she said in January.

"It has long been clear that the legal tests and statutory guidance on rate setting are not fit-for-purpose", said Marcus Bate, planning expert at Pinsent Masons the law firm behind Out-Law.com. "Examiners have not been given suitable tools to carry out a meaningful assessment of the appropriateness of proposed rates, particularly in the case of large strategic developments sites. Until the Regulations are changed to redress the imbalance, Examiners will have no choice but to approve rates unless they are clearly irrational."

BPF was appointed by Government last month to form a working group to look into the operation of the CIL development tariff. BPF policy officer Ghislaine Trehearne told Planning Magazine that the group would not be looking to scrap CIL, but to make it easier and to ensure big infrastructure projects were not delayed by the charge. The group is expected to report their findings later in the autumn.