ONH Explainer: Can you use CIL to fund your neighbourhood plan?

Yes! Although they may not advertise it, areas with the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in place are able to use the 'neighbourhood' part of that funding towards anything that will 'address the demands' that development places on an area. This is exactly what a good neighbourhood plan should do and therefore it is a reasonable use of CIL funding.

The Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 (as amended) says that CIL must be used:

"to support the development of the relevant 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."

Sadly, we've experienced rare cases in the past where Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) have approached the legislation differently, and been reluctant to authorise CIL expenditure on neighbourhood plans.

We were very pleased to see that the newly released Neighbourhood Plan Toolkits from Government (a lightly updated version of the old Locality Toolkits) have had some updates on this matter. The guidance on 'How to create a neighbourhood plan' has this to say under Financial Resources:

"Where local planning authorities have a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in place and a neighbourhood plan has been adopted, the ‘neighbourhood portion’ of CIL can be spent on infrastructure or on other measures that address the impacts of development in the area, including the preparation of a neighbourhood plan."

While some parts of the Toolkits could do with further updates, it's helpful to have had this clear addition. We recommend any parish looking for evidence for their LPA that CIL can be used to fund neighbourhood plan review reference the Toolkit.