The draft Community Infrastructure Levy (Amendment) Regulations implement a number of reforms to CIL which the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) consulted on earlier this year.
The draft regulations move the date on which authorities are restricted in their use of planning obligations for pooled contributions from from April 2014 to April 2015. Under this provision authorities may seek financial contributions from up to five separate planning obligations to fund an item of infrastructure not intended to be funded by CIL.
The regulations allow charging authorities to set differential rates by reference to the proposed size of development as well as to the proposed number of units or dwellings. The charge setting provisions will not apply to authorities which have already published a draft charging schedule.
Where a charging authority has published a draft Regulation 123 list identifying the projects or types of infrastructure its CIL receipts are intended to fund, that list must be used to inform its charging schedule.
An option is introduced for charging authorities to accept payments in kind through the provision of on-site or off-site infrastructure for the whole or part of the levy payable on a development. This extends existing rules under which CIL liability can be discharged through land provision.
The regulations also extends the current 'vacancy test' under which existing floor space can be off-set against a CIL liability when a building has been in continuous lawful use for at least six of the previous 12 months. The test is extended to cover buildings that have been in use for a continuous period of six months in the last three years.
The DCLG said that it will review CIL in 2015. "This will assess whether the levy has increased the funding available to local planning authorities for infrastructure, the level of infrastructure provided, and the extent to which this has supported development," it said.
Subject to the parliamentary process, the DCLG said it expects the regulations to come into effect by the end of January 2014.
