7 October 2020New Government guidance on neighbourhood planning encourages principal councils to pass on higher Community Infrastructure Levy share to parish councils and others where neighbourhood plan referendums have been postponed due to Coronavirus
Recognising that the postponement of neighbourhood plan referendums ‘due to COVID-19, may have an impact on the level of neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) that some communities would have expected, had referendums been allowed to go ahead’.
The Government in its latest update to the Neighbourhood Plan Planning Practice Guidance states, ‘Where a referendum has been postponed, the CIL charging authority are still required to pass 15% of the relevant CIL receipts to the parish council (rather than 25% as would have been the case had a successful referendum taken place). However, we encourage CIL charging authorities to work with the parish council or neighbourhood forum wherever possible, to consider whether an additional sum, equal to the shortfall in expected CIL receipts can be agreed’.
