Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

This webpage is intended to guide development pursuant to CIL regulations. It also provides an overview of neighbourhood CIL spent on local priorities, that are to be agreed by the local community in areas where development is taking place.

What is CIL?

Introduced by the Planning Act 2008, CIL is a charge that the authorities can set for certain new developments, in order to pay for the improved and increased infrastructure required as a consequence. CIL can be used to fund a wide range of infrastructure, including transport, flood defences, schools, hospitals, and other health and social care facilities, which gives flexibility for the council to choose what infrastructure is needed to deliver the local plan. 

Southwark Council is the CIL collecting authority for developments in Southwark and collects both the London Borough of Southwark CIL, as well as the Mayor of London’s CIL (MCIL). For the charging schedules of MCIL and Southwark CIL, see Chapter 3: how much is my CIL liability?.

Work alongside Section 106

S106 planning obligations are site specific to mitigate the impact of development, whereas CIL is a non-negotiable development tax, based on the scale and use of development, pooled to address the cumulative impact of development and support growth across the borough by funding local and strategic infrastructure. 

Since CIL (Amendment)(England)(No.2) Regulations 2019 took effect in September 2019, the requirement for a Regulation 123 list has been removed, along with the restrictions of collecting no more than five separate planning obligations towards one project or type of infrastructure. Lifting the CIL Reg. 123 restriction also gives flexibility for the council to fund the same item of infrastructure using both CIL and section 106 obligations, which was previously not allowed.

S106 and CIL SPD (adopted 2015, updated in November 2020) and the addendum (2017) 

Our Section 106 and CIL SPD (adopted in 2015 and amended in November 2020) sets out further guidance on our approach to Section 106 legal agreements and CIL. An addendum to SPD was adopted in January 2017 providing out the approach in the Old Kent Road Opportunity Area. Both documents can be viewed in the SPD webpage. 

Monitoring 

For CIL reports and the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS), visit the monitoring webpage. 

Page last updated: 07 August 2023