Parish CIL Spending - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
Parish CIL Spending
Hello all,
We have had a request from a Parish Council to use their CIL funds to fund a review into their Neighbourhood Plan. We have sought internal legal advice which has agreed with our position that using the CIL parish funds in this manner does not accord with Regulation 59C as it is too remote.
We have had pushback on this and just wondered what other LAs are doing? Are you allowing Parishes to spend CIL money on a review of their NPs?
Many thanks,
Evelyn
Paragraph: 145 Reference ID: 25-145-20190901 of the NPPG identifies “Areas could use some of the neighbourhood pot to develop a neighbourhood plan where it would support development by addressing the demands that development places on the area.” Presumably this has been run past Government lawyers...
Morning Evelyn,
We have allowed the Parish Councils to spend some of the funds on developing their Neighbourhood Plan for the same reason as Paul states above.
Hope that helps.
Hi Debbie
Did you apply any limitations on the funding in terms of what it could cover when agreeing the principle/ amount? Would it apply to development of the the plan in its widest sense, evidence base, SEA (if required), consultation material, public meetings venue hire, etc.
Thanks both, that's really helpful.
Seems that we should change our position based on this.
Many thanks
Evelyn
Hi Evelyn,
We are awaiting legal advice, but our management team have said that CIL funds should not be used for developing / updating neighbourhood plans. We have been advising parishes accordingly when they ask.
My reading of the NPPG is that there is certainly a lot more flexibility around what neighbourhood forums can spend their share of the levy on including explicitly preparing plans. "Areas could use some of the neighbourhood pot to develop a neighbourhood plan where it would support development by addressing the demands that development places on the area."
Obviously the pulling of funding nationally for Locality to support plans will mean some forums and parishes may well look more to CIL (where that is in place). It is interesting that unlike S106 agreements, CIL funding to the forums can be for maintenance not just new infrastructure provision.
It is worth remembering that CIL payment to local communities was devised fundamentally to get buy in to more development at the local level and this is one reason, in my view, why they are allowed to spend on almost anything. Obviously the other is that most significant infrastructure is provided by the borough/county councils and rightly so in a more strategic manner.
The greater flexibility Andrew refers to in the NPPG is baked into the Regulations - link in the extract below. There's also a bit of a political/democratic point perhaps that the decision on spending belongs to the Parish (together with the political and reputational risk etc). I might suggest that charging authorities need to respect this if they want to shape Parish spending plans perhaps.
What can neighbourhood funding be spent on?
The neighbourhood portion of the levy can be spent on a wider range of things than the rest of the levy, provided that it meets the requirement to ‘support the development of the area’ (see regulation 59C inserted by the 2013 Regulations for details). The wider definition means that the neighbourhood portion can be spent on things other than infrastructure (as defined in the Community Infrastructure Levy regulations) provided it is concerned with addressing the demands that development places on the parish’s area. For example, the pot could be used to fund affordable housing.
Paragraph: 151 Reference ID: 25-151-20190901
Revision date: 01 09 2019