Post-April 2015 (or implementation of a Charging Schedule) the 2014 Regulations impose a restriction on the number of Section 106 contributions that can be pooled towards infrastructure that may be funded by CIL.

This is explained further in the 2014 CIL Guidance which states that “At that point, no more may be collected in respect of a specific infrastructure project or a type of infrastructure through a Section 106 agreement, if five or more obligations for that project or type of infrastructure have already been entered into since 6 April 2010, and it is a type of infrastructure that is capable of being funded by the levy.”

It is therefore likely that many LPAs will already have hit this threshold for types of infrastructure (e.g. education) leaving them reliant on collecting planning obligations for a site-specific item of infrastructure or project (e.g. a local school).

However, the 2014 CIL Guidance suggests that the pooling of Section 106 for site-specific infrastructure could be restricted further - “Site-specific contributions like this should only be sought through planning obligations where this can be justified with reference to the underpinning evidence on infrastructure planning that was presented at the Charging Schedule examination.”

This is a clear message for LPAs with a CIL in place or post-examination by April 2015, but causes confusion for LPAs at earlier stages, so clarity through amended guidance would be helpful.

Who will make the April 2015 deadline?

Graph 3 below shows the forecast pipeline of CILs to be implemented using the long-run median timescales discussed above and clearly highlights the significant number of LPAs that will miss the April 2015 deadline. This research indicates that only 32% of LPAs could meet the deadline, leaving 68% that will miss the cut-off date.

Click the below image to enlarge

Taken from
Spotlight: CIL - The Countdown to April 2015