The London Time-Limited CIL Relief Consultation could have implications that stretch beyond the capital….

In the last few days of the parliamentary term, MHCLG launched a technical consultation on a time-limited CIL relief for London. It runs until 18 September 2026.

When the consultation launched, I said that, as it was quite involved, I would leave the detail to another day. This is that day.

Before I get into the detail of the relief itself, however, I wanted to flag something interesting that I spotted in the policy context section of the consultation. Three paragraphs, which could be read as a hint of things to come.

These paragraphs read as follows:

“The Government remains committed to the benefits of the CIL regime for delivery of local infrastructure over the long-term, in London and across the country. Nevertheless the overarching aim of CIL is to ensure that the costs incurred in supporting the development of an area to be funded (wholly or partly) by owners/ developers of land in a way which does not make development of the area economically unviable (section 205(2) of the Planning Act 2008).

London differs to other regions in that it has full CIL coverage, with all London boroughs now charging CIL following its introduction by Ealing Council in March of this year. Further, many London CIL charging schedules are over a decade old, meaning rates have substantially increased due to indexation. Of the 34 London local CIL charging authorities in London (the 32 boroughs, the City of London Corporation, and Old Oak Common Development Corporation), 21 have charging schedules from before 2016, meaning the CIL rates within them have increased by over 50 per cent solely due to indexation, and will likely not be reflective of the current viability context.

The Government’s Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) states that CIL charging authorities “must keep their charging schedules under review and should ensure that levy charges remain appropriate over time” (see Paragraph: 045 Reference ID: 25-045-20190901). All CIL charging authorities, including London Boroughs, should therefore revise charging schedules as necessary to ensure this remains the case. As noted in the first consultation, the Government recognises the time this can take for authorities, which is why a time-limited CIL relief has been proposed to reduce CIL costs and improve the viability equation in the short term. In line with PPG, the Government expects that, once the commencement deadline for the proposed London CIL relief has passed, rates across London should have been reviewed and revised as necessary to ensure they are appropriate over the longer term.” (my emphasis).

I flag these three paragraphs because London is not alone in having:

• extensive CIL Coverage
• a large number of older charging schedules that have yet to be reviewed by the relevant charging authority.

If you sort the Planning Resource CIL Tracker database* by charging schedule adoption date – you have to scroll to the last entry on page 16 of a 30 page database before you reach the first charging schedule adopted in 2016 – which just so happens to be Rutland’s (adoption date 11 Jan 2016). Of the approximately 178 entries in the database, 95 pre-date 2016 and 74 of these, on MHCLG’s own maths, are outside of the capital.

Whilst viability pressures are arguably most acute in London, they are being felt much more broadly across the country. All of which means that the policy justification for the CIL intervention currently being proposed for London could be extended more broadly – if the call for reviews of charging rates in the consultation document above is not heeded.

Right. That is quite enough time playing Mystic Meg for one day… lets get stuck into the consultation itself.

Time-limited London CIL relief

Even by CIL standards, this is complicated relief, which is designed to benefit a fairly limited number of developments.

It will not apply to:

• sites which contain more than a set proportion of “excluded land” – which is defined as Green Belt Land, Metropolitan Open Land, parks, recreation grounds, allotments, golf courses or other locally designated open space. The exact threshold is being consulted on, but it is likely to be between 10% and 25% of the site
• non-residential developments of all types (although the residential parts of mixed use schemes could qualify)
• student and co-living accommodation (although, other residential elements of a mixed use scheme could qualify)
• developments providing less than a set percentage of affordable housing on-site – with that percentage changing depending on the type of land the development is being built on – or which fails to meet a specific tenure mix – which is also variable and set out in the relief itself; and
• developments with a borough CIL Liability of less than £500,000 – before the time-limited relief is applied, but after other reliefs have been taken into account.

If your scheme is eligible, then you need to:

• apply before for it before commencing development – much like all other CIL reliefs
• submit viability information and a statutory declaration in the prescribed form
• submit evidence that your scheme is eligible for the relief; and
• pay your £25,000 application fee.

The charging authority then has 28 days to respond to the application confirming if you are eligible and, if so, the amount of the relief.

The amount of the relief that can be granted operates on a sliding scale, between 50% of the Borough CIL charge if 20% affordable housing is provided on site, to up to 80% of the Borough CIL where 35% (or more) affordable housing is provided on site.

However the relief will be lost if any of the following “disqualifying events” occurs within a defined clawback period:

The Clawback period is defined as “the period beginning with the granting of the relief and ending with the date of the last compliance certificate relating to the total development (which has the same meaning as in regulation 54E)”

Interestingly, the ability to apply for the relief itself is not time limited. The “time limited” element appears to have been solely introduced through the requirement that the scheme commences before 31 March 2030 – which means that it would be comparatively easy for MHCLG to extend the relief in the future, by amending the CIL regulations to change that date.

The upshot of all the above being that there is a LOT to get your teeth into, if you have some spare time over August…

Oh, and if you are working in an LPA outside of London with a pre-2016 charging schedule, it might not be a bad idea to give it a quick review…

*very useful, but behind a paywall.