The final CIL Regulations have been published for placing before the House of Commons, with the intention that they will come into force on 6 April.
There are quite a few changes from the draft Regulations. For starters, we now have a transitional provision (Reg 128) purporting to let developments off the CIL-hook if planning permission is granted before the relevant authority has a charging schedule in force.
Also new are the exclusions for affordable housing and exceptional circumstances. It will be interesting to see how the latter works - it requires the charging authority to have made provision for it in its area and for there to be a s106 in place for which the cost of compliance is greater than the CIL otherwise due. Note that proposals to scale back s106s remain.
There is still no obligation on charging authorities to report on timings for upcoming expenditure, or any obligation to actually provide what they have set out in their charging schedules. Equally, there is nothing requiring them to keep these schedules up to date.
Many of the amendments made have been so made for good reasons, but I suspect the regime will still have its issues (not least the Tories...).
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