London Councils responses to the Mayor's two 2011 CIL consultations

The Mayor aims to raise £300m from his Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) between 2012 and 2019 as part of the £14.5 billion funding package for Crossrail agreed in November 2007, and he has consulted twice on the precise structure of his proposals in 2011.

The Mayor's proposals wil mean that any qualifying development in London will have to pay a levy to the GLA in addition to any developer contribution (either a S106 planning obligation or a borough CIL) paid to the borough where it is happening.  In order to achieve this, the Mayor proposes to put each borough into one of three bands. Each borough would be entirely within one of those three bands, and all the qualifying developments in a given borough would pay that band's rate of CIL.

The Mayor consulted on the preliminary draft charging schedule for his CIL between January and March, and then consulted on his draft charging schedule between June and July. London Councils' concerns centered around the following points:

• The impact of the Mayoral CIL on boroughs' ability to secure funding for other local and sub-regional priorities, especially affordable housing
• The need to fully consider all possible alternatives before going ahead with the proposals for raising CIL
• The disincentive that the proposed charge could pose to development in London
• The need to ensure that CIL is time-limited and directed only towards Crossrail 
• A commitment to review the impact on viability of CIL after two years

You can read the full responses to both consultations in the letters to the Mayor below.