The Charging Schedule will be used to impose a levy on development in the district to raise money for local infrastructure.
Huntingdonshire's proposed CIL "sets an appropriate balance" between helping to fund new infrastructure and "the potential effects on the economic viability of development across the district", the examiner's report said.
In assessing the viability of the proposed CIL, the examiner's report (11-page / 99KB PDF) said that the Council had struck an "appropriate balance" which would make an important contribution to funding new infrastructure "without a serious risk to the economic viability of development locally".
The proposed CIL rated have remained largely the same throughout the consultation process, bar the rate for use class D1 (health care), where the Council made a "significant modification". Following representations, the levy has been reduced from £140 per square metre to £65 per sq m.
The Council has proposed standard CIL rates across the district for new housing, which would be set at £85 per sq m. It opted not to set different rates in certain areas, which has the "advantages of clarity and certainty for all concerned, as well as ease of implementation," the examiner said.
Some respondents criticised the profit levels assumed by the Council for housing as "too low", but the examiner concluded that the standard rate should not materially reduce the delivery of new housing through insufficient profitability for developers, in most cases, including on the larger sites.
Under the proposed Charging Schedule, retail developments would be charged at between £40 to £100 per sq m and office and industrial uses would be set a nil rate (ie £0 per sq m).
The Council's cabinet is due to decide on whether to approve the CIL Charging Schedule this week.
If approved, the Charging Schedule would come into force on 1 May and the Council would become the sixth authority in the country to have a CIL Charging Schedule in force.
At the hearing the examiner and Council agreed that it may be appropriate to consider any revisions to the Charging Schedule after it has been in place for 3 years, the examiner's report said.
Other councils that have adopted a CIL include Newark and Sherwood District Council, Shropshire Council, the London Borough of Redbridge and Portsmouth City Council, in addition to the Mayor of London.
