Beth Youngs, an Associate in Birketts’ Planning & Environmental Team, has recently saved a client over £64,000 in CIL payments.
Regulation 65(1) of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 states that “The collecting authority must issue a liability notice as soon as practicable after the day on which a planning permission first permits development.”
This is a strict burden on the collecting authority. There is no mechanism within the Regulations for the Council to extend the time for service of a liability notice and there is no excuse or extenuating circumstances available for the Council to provide reasons for the extensive delay in issuing.
In accordance Lang J’s judgment in R. (on the application of Trent) v Hertsmere BC [2021] EWHC 907 (Admin) any delay in issuing a Liability Notice would be “measured in weeks or months, not years”.
In the case on which Beth was instructed she successfully challenged the claim for CIL on the grounds of documents being served out of time. In that case the Liability Notice and the Demand Notice were both issued one year and seven months after the day on which planning permission first permitted development. This delay resulted in the loss of key information for Birketts’ client which meant that they were unable to provide information, notices and documents to the Council in accordance with the timetable prescribed by the Regulations. Most notably and detrimentally the client lost the ability to serve a commencement notice and submit a self-build exemption claim to the Council in time.
Birketts challenged the service of the Liability Order and the Demand Notice on the basis that the breach of Regulation 65(1) meant that the Liability Order and the Demand Notice were invalid from the date of issue.
The Council accepted the point and withdrew the Liability Notice and the Demand Notice so that no CIL was payable.
This is a reminder of the strict procedural requirements of the CIL regime both for Councils and Developers.
Beth Youngs is an Associate in Birketts Planning and Environmental Team and specialises in Community Infrastructure Levy advice.
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The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at March 2025.