CIL - retrospective social housing relief - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

Morning Carmel,

This is a difficult one becuase reg 51(1)(b) states they must be the owner of the land, however your developer is selling so will no longer be the owner of said land. 

Form 10 states: 

If your CIL Liability Notice, or revised CIL Liability Notice (if issued), was issued on or after 1 September 2019 Any Relief must be granted by the Collecting Authority prior to the date of commencement of the development otherwise the full levy charge will be payable. Also, following the granting of any Relief, a Commencement (of development) Notice must be received by the Collecting Authority prior to the date of commencement of the development, otherwise a surcharge equal to 20% of the notional chargeable amount or £2,500, whichever is the lower amount, will be applied

51(4A) states the provision of qualifying dwellings dwellings .....changes after commencement .... 

However, when the development started these dwellings did not qualify because they wer not going to be AH.

My gut feeling is that releif can't be granted now, however, I would seek legal advice before making any decisions. I would also be interested in other people's views as this is a new one for me too. 

Morning Carmel,

Debiie beat me to it but I would tend to agree with her and would seek legal advice.

One other point to take into consideration is reg 75 (4)(b). I would think you would not be required to refund the "overpayment" as it was calculated correctly at the time commencent occured but like I said really worth seeking legal advice.  If you do please share the answer as I think this is a tricky position and one many of us would be interested in the outcome of.

Kind regards

Kirstin

I think the regulations are pretty clear on this. Social Housing relief cannot be requested after the development has already commened (CIL Reg 51 (3)(b)/4(a)). The claim must be received by the collecting authority prior to commencement of development (51.3(b)). Also the relief will lapse if the development has commenced prior to the collecting authority notified the claiment of its decision on the claim. 

From the above, my view is that collecting authority cannot accept and issue a relief decision after the development has commenced. We have dealt with a kind of medium major case of 81 dwellings and we couldn't offer them the social housing relief as they have commenced without notifying us and they claimed after they commenced. We won appeal as well as judiciary review etc. 

However that was in 2017/2018.So, probably legal can enlighten on 51 4(b) from 2019 amendement.

To add further 51 (7) states that teh claimant cannot withdraw liability/transfer liability after commencement. 

Hope this helps!

Hi, 

Thanks all for the help here.  Para 51 4A allows for relief if the qualifying development changes (which it has in this case) after commencement of development.  The legal advice I have had is below so we have now invited them to make an application which will get fully assessed.  I'll let you know the outcome of this one...

It would appear that provided the developer is still the owner of the land then he can make an application for relief even though it is after the commencement of the development.

According to regulation 51(3) the claim must be submitted on a form as published by the Secretary of State or a form of substantially the same effect.

51(3)(d) sets out what must accompany the form.

In my view he will need to provide clear evidence that WCH are purchasing the land and evidence that they will be letting the dwellings in accordance with the requirements of regulation 49.

If he has subsequently now sold the land to WCH then he is too late to claim the relief.