Neighbourhood CIL
The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations provide that a proportion of CIL collected by a charging authority may be spent to address “the demands that development places” on a local area. This proportion which is called Neighbourhood CIL may be spent on non-infrastructure items. The regulations established the “meaningful proportion’ for the Neighbourhood element, as being 15% for areas without a Neighbourhood Plan and 25% for areas with a Neighbourhood Plan.
The national Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) sets out how the government expects local authorities to approach the spending of the neighbourhood portion. Where there is no parish or town council, as is the case in Lambeth, the guidance provides that the local authority must consult with the community, on how best to spend 15% of the CIL collected from developments. This 15% of local CIL receipts is capped each year at £100 (indexed from the year of the adoption of CIL) per Council tax dwelling located in the neighbourhood area. If the neighbourhood area has a neighbourhood plan in place, the allocation for Neighbourhood CIL rises to 25% without the cap. The regulations also place a duty on the charging authority to balance neighbourhood wishes with wider requirement to ensure growth and relief of cumulative impacts from developments are managed across the borough.
Delivery framework
On 5 July 2021, the Cabinet of the Council agreed a new delivery framework in respect of the requirement to engage with local communities about how Neighbourhood CIL should be invested and reported. Lambeth’s Cabinet agreed as follows:
- The Council formally reverts its position around the additional allocation of 10% CIL to a local level. In accordance with national government guidance, Neighbourhood CIL will be 15% of CIL receipts for areas without a Neighbourhood Plan and 25% for areas with a Neighbourhood Plan. All CIL will be managed through the Council’s Capital Investment Programme.
- Neighbourhood CIL spend will be on the basis of need, to best manage the impacts of growth across the whole borough. In terms of the CIL regulations, the whole of the borough will be regarded as the local area.
Visit Modern Gov to view the full Cabinet report.
Neighbourhood areas
Whilst the whole borough will be regarded as one local area for spending the neighbourhood element of CIL, the accrual and spend of Neighbourhood CIL will continue to be tracked by neighbourhood geography based on the following neighbourhood areas:
- South Bank and Waterloo Neighbourhood (SOWN) area (Bishop’s ward)
- North Lambeth (Prince’s and Oval wards)
- Stockwell (Larkhall, Stockwell and Vassall wards)
- Clapham (Clapham Town, Clapham Common, Thornton and Ferndale wards)
- Brixton (Brixton Hill, Tulse Hill, Coldharbour and Herne Hill wards)
- Streatham (Streatham Hill, St Leonard’s, Streatham Wells and Streatham South wards)
- Norwood (Knight’s Hill, Thurlow Park and Gipsy Hill wards)
A map of the neighbourhood areas is available on this page.
Local engagement
The mechanism for engagement with local communities in these neighbourhoods will make use of the following approaches:
Annual resident surveys. The Council’s resident surveys take place each May. The Council’s approach will be to regularly use residents’ surveys and existing networks to identify local community priorities. This also has the advantage of being based on statistically representative sampling.
Lambeth Made Safer (LMS) communities and neighbourhood working. The Council is committed to regular and facilitated dialogue and action with our communities about how to build community resilience and improved safety through the LMS Communities forums. In parallel, through our Neighbourhood Working pilots we are emphasising the need to design and deliver services and projects in neighbourhoods by pooling the detailed knowledge of our front-line staff and our Voluntary Sector Community partners.
Annual neighbourhood reviews. Ward councillors together with any Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the neighbourhood area, would undertake an annual review of developer contribution spend, and any changes in local priority emerging from the resident data.
State of the borough. The above sources will be used to produce an annual State of the Borough report, which will provide a more detailed insight on community priorities both borough-wide and broken down by neighbourhood areas. This will be produced corporately and will help to inform corporate policy, strategy and decision making across the Council and partnership working.