Purpose

The purpose of this report is
to update Cabinet on the recent strategic Community Infrastructure
Levy (CIL) application process and seek approval to allocate
£1,475,534 of strategic CIL funding to twelve applicants. It
outlines the evaluation process undertaken by the Strategic
Infrastructure Group (SIG) for applications received in December
2025.
 
The next strategic CIL funding
round will open in Spring 2026

Reasons for the decision

CIL enables local planning authorities to
raise funds from developers undertaking new building projects in
their area. The money can be used to fund a wide range of
infrastructure that is needed to support the development of the
area.
 
The CIL Regulations 2010 specify that CIL
income must be allocated as follows:

•      
Administration Fund: up to 5% of CIL income can be used for
implementing and administering CIL by the charging authority.

•      
Neighbourhood Fund: 15% (subject to a cap based on the number of
existing dwellings in the parish) rising to 25% in areas with a
Neighbourhood Plan, is passed to the Parish Council where the
contributing development is located.

•      
Strategic Infrastructure: The remaining 70-80% must be spent on
infrastructure that supports growth within the CIL Charging
Authority’s area.
 
This report only covers the allocation of
strategic CIL funding and not the allocations to Parish Councils.
Neighbourhood CIL (NCIL) funding is spent at the discretion of the
individual parish councils and must be spent within 5 years of
receipt. Parish Councils are required to report annually on their
NCIL spending and these reports can be viewed online.

Alternative options considered

Cabinet could decide to not allocate any
funding to any of the projects and continue to accrue monies to
create a larger pot that can be used for delivery of some of the
projects that were not successful in this round or new projects in
a further bidding round. This approach would contradict the
council’s own adopted procedures which state that the Council
will open a CIL bidding round each year in line with its adopted
Infrastructure List. It also risks CIL funding being applied to
lower scoring projects that do not align with the Council’s
infrastructure priorities.