Neighbourhood CIL​

The district council is required to pass to the relevant parish or town councils CIL receipts that arise from development in their parish area. This is known as the Neighbourhood Fund.

In areas with a Neighbourhood Plan the amount to be passed to the parish or town council will be 25%.  

In areas without a Neighbourhood Plan this amount will be 15%. 

How the funds must be spent

The regulations state that this proportion of funds must be used to support the development of the local area by funding:  

• the provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure; or  
• anything else that is concerned with addressing the demands that development places on an area  

The regulations provided parish or town councils with a much more flexible approach for spending their CIL receipts in comparison to the powers conferred to the district council to spend CIL income.  

These wider spending powers for parish and town councils allow the local community to decide what they need to help mitigate the impacts of development in their area. This may be for a local project, or the parish or town councils may decide to contribute their proportion of the funding to the strategic projects which are being supported by the district council. 

CIL infrastructure list

Decisions on the expenditure of the funds are at the parish or town council’s discretion, provided that is in accordance with the CIL regulations.  

Administration fee

Under the regulations, we are permitted to allocate up to 5% of all CIL receipts to assist in the costs of administering CIL. We currently deduct 2.5% to cover administration fees. This is reviewed annually.  

Payment periods  

We will normally make payment to parish or town councils as follows:  

• CIL received between 1 April and 30 September by 28 October of that financial year
• CIL received between 1 October to 31 March by 28 April of the following financial year  

We may come to an alternative agreement with a town or parish council on when CIL funds may be transferred where appropriate, for example to facilitate the cash flow of a project.  

Failure to spend funds

If a parish or town council fails to spend CIL funds transferred to them within a period of 5 years from the date of initial receipt, or does not apply the funds in accordance with the regulations, then the district council can serve a notice on a parish or town council requiring it to repay some or all of the receipts that had been transferred to them.  

We will then be required to spend any recovered funds in the parish or town council’s area.  

Reporting  

Reporting on the CIL Neighbourhood Fund is a statutory requirement.

Regulation 121B states that the town or parish council must prepare an Annual CIL Report for each financial year (1 April to 31 March) they receive CIL.  

The report must include the following:

• the total amount of CIL receipts in the financial year
• the total CIL expenditure in the financial year
• details (a breakdown) of the CIL expenditure in the financial year to include a description of the items to which CIL has been applied and the amount of CIL expenditure on each item
• details of any CIL clawback notices received during the financial year to include the total value of CIL receipts subject to notices served to recover CIL and the total value of CIL receipts subject to a notice served to recover CIL in any year that has not yet been repaid to the district council 

Reports can be combined with other reports already produced by parish and town councils and should be placed on their website, and a copy of the report should be sent to the district council by 31 December.  

Reports are only required where a parish or town council has received CIL revenue. Where no monies are received in the reporting year, but monies have been received in previous years, a report will still need to be produced detailing the receipts and expenditure.

Further details  

For further information please:

Email: CIL@eastcambs.gov.uk 
Telephone: 01353 665555