No further amendments to the CIL Regulations are planned before the General Election. It is therefore unlikely that the April 2015 deadline will be extended. The key concern for landowners and developers post-April 2015 is therefore how infrastructure will be delivered in LPAs where a CIL is not in place.

Developers and LPAs should therefore ensure that any Section 106 agreements post April-2015, or in areas where CIL is already in place, refer to contributions for specific projects. This will ensure that the contributions are lawful and that the impact of developments can continue to be mitigated. Further guidance on this point from Ministers is also essential to ensure that LPAs have a sufficient Section 106 mechanism in place post-April 2015, as failure to do so will have a significant impact on the delivery of both infrastructure and housing.

Grampian conditions - A key concern for developers

Grampian conditions are planning conditions attached to a decision notice by a LPA preventing a development from commencing until certain items of infrastructure have been completed on land both within and outside the control of the developer.

These conditions, whilst fairly common, carry significant risk for developers and could become increasingly onerous post-CIL where the items of infrastructure are included on the Regulation 123 list but fall within the boundary of the site.

In these instances the developer cannot put the infrastructure in themselves. They are subsequently reliant on the LPA funding and delivering the necessary infrastructure.

It is therefore essential that LPAs review their Regulation 123 lists and where possible limit these items to those that will not prevent large sites from coming forward for development. In addition, LPAs should ensure that Section 106 agreements refer to specific items of infrastructure (e.g. a specific school) to enable ‘salami-slicing’ of infrastructure types.

Taken from
Spotlight: CIL - The Countdown to April 2015