Commentary Part 6: Planning Chapter 2: Community Infrastructure Levy Section 115: Use of Community Infrastructure Levy
259.This section amends Part 11 of the Planning Act 2008, concerning the Community Infrastructure Levy. The section extends the permitted uses of levy receipts, in specified situations, so that they may be applied to any matter that supports development by addressing the demands that it places on the areas that host it.
260.The section also amends the purpose of the Community Infrastructure Levy to explicitly require that regulations must aim to ensure that the imposition of a levy charge in an area will not make the development of the area economically unviable. The section also allows for regulations to require charging authorities to consider the costs of, and other sources of funding for, the matters that may be funded through the extended permissible uses of levy receipts when setting a charge in their area.
261.The section provides clarification that permitted spending on infrastructure includes providing it initially, improving or replacing infrastructure, and operating and maintaining it, where doing so supports development. Provisions for regulations to set out activities relating to maintenance, operation and promotion that may or may not be funded by the Community Infrastructure Levy are also included.
262.This section also provides regulation-making powers for requiring charging authorities to pass funds raised through the Community Infrastructure Levy to other bodies to spend. Where regulations require a local authority to pass funds to another person, those funds may be applied to infrastructure or any other matter that supports development by addressing the demands that it places on the areas that host it. This section sets out the framework for this process, providing for regulations to set out the details including: the area in which it will apply; the bodies it will apply to; the amount and timings of payments; things that may or may not be funded; monitoring, accounting and reporting responsibilities of charging authorities; and when funding is to be returned to the charging authority. The section also provides that regulations may allow a charging authority to apply some or all of their levy receipts raised in an area to the same extended matters, but only where they are not required to pass a proportion of their levy receipts to other bodies.