Council CIL charging schedules: reading zones and indexation

The rate printed on a Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule is almost never the rate you pay. Between the two sit indexation, the zone your site falls in, and the floorspace the council will let you deduct. On a scheme of any size those three variables move the number more than the headline rate does.

Reading a schedule properly takes about twenty minutes and saves an appraisal that is wrong by a six figure sum.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Levy rates and the regulations change, so work from the council's current published documents.

How a charging schedule is put together

A charging authority prepares a draft schedule, tests it against viability evidence, consults, and submits it for independent examination. The examiner checks that the rates strike an appropriate balance between funding infrastructure and the effect on the viability of development across the area. The schedule then takes effect from a date the council resolves.

Rates are expressed in pounds per square metre of net additional gross internal floorspace. They vary by development type, and most schedules set a nil rate for uses the viability evidence could not support, which frequently means offices, industrial floorspace and some town centre uses.

Two documents sit alongside the schedule and both matter: the map defining the charging zones, and the instalment policy.

Reading the zone map and the boundary problem

Zones exist because values differ across a district. A rural authority might charge a high rate in commuter villages, a middle rate in the market town and nothing on the edge of an urban area where values are lower.

The boundaries are lines on a plan, and they are frequently drawn along ward boundaries, parish boundaries or plan policy designations rather than anything you can see from the road. Two consequences follow. Sites near a boundary need checking against the actual map rather than a general impression of the area. And a site that straddles a boundary is apportioned, normally by reference to where the chargeable floorspace sits.

Ask the levy officer for written confirmation of the zone before the appraisal is finalised. It is a two line email and it prevents the argument that arrives with the liability notice.

Indexation and why the adopted rate is not the rate you pay

Indexation is the part most appraisals get wrong. The regulations index the adopted rate using construction cost indices published by RICS, comparing the index figure for the year the charging schedule took effect with the figure for the year the permission is granted.

A schedule adopted several years ago will therefore produce a demand well above its printed rate, and the gap widens with every year of construction cost inflation. Since the 2019 amendments, charging authorities publish an annual rate summary setting out the indexed rates for the current year. That summary is the working document.

Timing follows from this. Indexation is fixed by the year the permission is granted, so a permission granted in December and one granted in January of the following year can carry different rates. On a large scheme that is worth knowing when you decide whether to accept an extension of time.

Existing floorspace and what can be deducted

The charge falls on net additional floorspace, so what is already there can be deducted where it qualifies. The test in the regulations is that the building has been in lawful use for at least six continuous months within the three years ending on the day the permission first permits the development.

Evidence is the whole battle. Business rates records, utility bills showing consumption rather than standing charges, tenancy agreements, photographs and delivery records all help. A building that has stood empty for four years produces no deduction, which is why long vacant sites often carry a far larger charge than the owner expected.

Gross internal area includes basements, plant rooms and internal circulation, which is why basement floorspace in London boroughs so often pushes a scheme into a charge the applicant had not budgeted for. Measure to the internal face of the external walls and check the drawings agree with the schedule of areas on the form.

Instalment policies and payment windows

An instalment policy is discretionary. Where one exists it sets the number of payments, the proportion due at each stage and the trigger dates, usually running from the commencement date.

The policy almost always applies only where the commencement notice was served on time and liability was assumed before works began. Miss either and the full amount falls due shortly after commencement. On a phased scheme the policy may also treat each phase separately, which helps cash flow considerably where the permission is drafted with phases properly defined.

Read the policy alongside the development programme rather than after it. A trigger set at first occupation behaves very differently from one set at eighteen months after commencement.

Infrastructure funding statements after regulation 123

Regulation 123 lists, which used to define what the levy would be spent on and therefore what could not be sought through a section 106 obligation, were abolished in 2019. In their place, charging authorities publish an annual infrastructure funding statement.

The statement reports levy and obligation receipts, what has been spent, what is held, and the infrastructure the council intends to fund. It is worth reading before you negotiate contributions, because it shows whether the council is already collecting for the infrastructure it is asking you to fund again through an obligation.

Where the total burden threatens deliverability, the argument moves to viability. A Viability Assessment can address the level of affordable housing and obligations, though the levy itself is far harder to reduce, since the schedule was examined on area-wide viability evidence. Set the position out clearly in the Affordable Housing Statement as well, so the two documents tell a consistent story.

Checking whether your council charges at all

Not every authority has adopted a schedule. Some rely on section 106 obligations. Others have a schedule with a nil rate for the use you are proposing.

1. Search the council's site for a charging schedule and note the date it took effect.
2. Find the current annual rate summary and use its indexed figures.
3. Locate your site on the charging zone map.
4. Read the instalment policy and note the trigger dates.
5. In Greater London, add the Mayoral levy, which is charged alongside the borough rate.
6. Check the latest infrastructure funding statement before negotiating obligations.

That sequence gives you a defensible number for an appraisal. It also gives you the questions to put to the levy officer, who is usually a different person from the case officer and often quicker to answer.

Budget the reports the application itself needs alongside the levy. See PlanScope pricing for one free report, £50 per report, or Professional for unlimited reports.

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