Exceptional Circumstances - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

Dont know but under most conceivable circumstances any residential development with a reasonable level of affordable housing will have a S106 of greater value than the CIL.

I remain confused on the exceptional circumstances assessment and whether without both CIL and S106 monies being taken from a particular scheme relief cannot be given. Having read the recently revised FAQ it clearly suggest not - a S106 must be in place. Unless I have lost the plot - not difficult in such an impossibly complex CIL process - there will be many schemes of a smaller nature where it strikes me that CIL will be taken but there is no necessity for a S106 agreement. In my own authority there are currently thresholds below which planning contributions are not currently required or saught but in future CIL may be payable. Does this mean without a S106 in place to assess CIL against no relief can be given? Hopefully the answer is clear!

I considered this issue with a colleague recently. I came to the conclusion that it is not a pre-existing s106 that is required. The developer will only be liable to pay CIL on commencement of development, i.e. when consent has been granted and the scale of any s106 requirements can be considered. I assume the developer would only be able to seek the exemption when liable to pay the charge.

My reading is: S106 on the outline, CIL on the full. No S106, no exceptional relief. If you dont want to make relief available you dont have to. If you make it available you dont have to grant it. If you grant it a third party works out what value it is, reducing the CIL charge accordingly. Of course not knowing exactly what the CIL will be, will make negotiations on the S106 at outline and interesting task.

Phil's third point is not correct. If ECR is offered, an application for it has to be accompanied by an independant assessment of the cost of complying with the s.106 requirements and an independant assessment of the economic viability of the chargeable development. as well as an explanation of why the payment of CIL would have an unacceptable impact on the viability of the development. When the application and that information is received by the charging authority, it is the charging authority, and not a third party, that decides whether to grant relief and, if so, how much relief to grant. See Regs 55-57. If the cost of complying with the s.106 requirements does not excede the CIL liability then the application for relief falls at the first hurdle. The Regs do not contain a provision for appealing against the charging authority's decision on whether to grant ECR at all or how much.