Guidance Note 5: Parishes and Towns

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Guidance Note 5: Parishes and Towns

Updated July 2020

Summary

The Community Infrastructure Levy allows local authorities to raise monies from development for the provision of infrastructure in and around their areas or strategic cross boundary infrastructure projects where several local authorities contribute. A CIL charge is non-negotiable; however, there are exemptions for some types of development such as affordable housing, self-build, self-build extension or annex.

The CIL Regulation requires Chiltern District Council and South Bucks District Council to pass a proportion of CIL receipts collected from developments in their areas directly to Parish or Town Councils to be spent on infrastructure or anything else that is concerned which address the demands that development places on an area.

The District Councils will pass accumulated funds to the parish/town twice a year. The Council will continue to monitor CIL income and to make payments to the Parish Councils, this Guidance will be published and Parish Council Clerks will be informed. The Parish or Village Council will be required to report on receipts and expenditure each year.

Introduction

Amendment Regulations have been passed that require charging authorities to pass a proportion of CIL receipts to Parish or Village Councils from developments that take place in their areas. Councils are required to pass 15% of CIL receipts to relevant Parish Councils arising from developments in their areas. This rises to 25% in areas with an adopted Neighbourhood Development Plan. Previously the Government had indicated only that the sum to be transferred would be a "meaningful proportion" of CIL receipts. To prevent excessive amounts being passed on, the payments to areas without a Neighbourhood Development Plan in place will be capped to £100 per existing council tax dwelling per year. This means that a parish with 500 dwellings cannot receive over £50,000 of CIL receipts per year. Appendix 1 and Appendix 3 set out the maximum amount that can be passed to each parish and town council in the district. Note in areas with a Neighbourhood Development Plan, the amount to be passed over will be 25% with no cap as shown in Appendix 2.

How the funds must be spent?

The amended Regulations state that this proportion of funds must be used 'to support the development of the local area by funding:

a) The provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure; or
b) Anything else that is concerned with addressing the demands that development places on an area

This is a wider definition of what the District Council can use CIL funds (restricted to infrastructure to support the development of the area). These wider spending powers allow the local community to decide what they need to help mitigate the impacts of development, for example the money can be used for open space provision, playgrounds, cycle paths, landscape, planting, etc or they can choose to contribute to larger projects funded by other bodies, such as the District or County Council. Appendix 4 provides a list of the types of infrastructure that Parish Councils can spend their CIL money on.

If a parish council has failed to spend CIL funds passed to it within 5 years of receipt or has applied the funds not in accordance with the CIL Regulations, the District Council can serve a notice on the Parish or Village Council requiring it to repay some or all of the receipts passed onto it. The District Council will be required to spend any recovered funds in the Parish or Village Council's area.

Payment periods

The District Council may come to an agreement with a Parish or Village Council on when CIL funds may be passed to the parish council. Where no agreement is in place, the District Council must make payment in respect of CIL it receives from 1st April to 30th September in any financial year to the parish council by 28th October of that financial year and pay the CIL received from 1st October to 31st March in any financial year by the 28th April of the following financial year.

Chiltern District Council and South Bucks District Council must make payments to the Parish or Town Council for CIL payments received from 1st April to 30th September by the 28th October and CIL payment received from 1st October to 31st March by the 28th April of every year. The Council intends to pass CIL payments to the Parish Councils twice a year.

Reporting

To ensure transparency Parish and Village Councils must publish each year their total CIL receipts; total expenditure; a summary of what the CIL was spent on; and the total amount of receipts retained at the end of the reported year from that year and previous years.
Reports can be combined with reports already produced by parish council and should be placed on their websites. A copy of the report should also be sent to the District Council no later than the end of May of each year. It is our intention to report on CIL through our existing monitoring report AMR, which is produced annually. A reporting template, Appendix 5, has been produced so as to maintain consistency throughout. Please refer to the Council's website for the report template, titled Parish, Town Council Spending Form.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Source: Chiltern District Council and South Bucks District Council Tax Properties

Appendix 4: