Following a six week consultation period which ended in May this year, the Government has published its response to views surrounding further regulatory reforms to the Community Infrastructure Levy (‘CIL’). As such, the April 2013 consultation set out a number of amendments to CIL Regulations with a particular focus around rate setting and the operation of the levy in practice.
The Government hopes that further reflective changes to levy regulations will lead to greater efficiency in terms of CIL inception and progression without the need for further reforms. The current amendments ‘package’ therefore goes towards capturing lessons learnt throughout the early years of the levy’s operation.
The Government has now proposed the following key changes:
- Extending vacancy tests to cover buildings that have been in use for a continuous period of six months in the last three years (previously one year). Where there is no change of use, this will be exempt from the levy unless there is an increase in floorspace or the building has been uninhibited. This will help to facilitate empty buildings being brought back into use;
- Allowing the provision of infrastructure either on and/or off site in order to expand the scope of ‘payment in kind.’ This will enable developer’s greater certainty in terms of timescales by which certain infrastructure requirements will be delivered.
- Extending the date from which the pooling restrictions on S106 obligations will apply nationally by one year from April 2014 to April 2015.
Many of the proposed amendments are reflective of those put forward as part of the consultation, however there are a number of changes. The Government intends to develop this guidance in due course, with the objective of presenting to Parliament before the end of the year (2013), it is estimated that amended regulations will come into play by the end of January 2014. But will the amendments bring greater certainty and efficiency or carry greater confusion? And, with the extended period to introduce CIL schedules, will local authorities now hold off its introduction in anticipation of potential more wide-ranging reform potentially in advance of a General Election?
The Government’s response in addition to details of all proposed amendments can be found here.