The information below is about the impact of phasing a development on CIL. A development can only be phased if it is necessary and appropriate in planning terms. This will need be discussed with Planning.
Where a planning permission is phased, CIL is applied to each phase of the development as if it were a separate chargeable development. The benefit of this is that different parts of the development can start without CIL becoming due on other parts of the development. This has implications on:
development cashflow
build timescales
the ability to claim CIL relief
Please consider if your development needs to be phased and discuss this with your planning case officer early in the planning process so that the phasing can be explicitly set out in the planning permission. A phasing condition setting out each phase and the sequence of delivery must be applied to the permission for CIL purposes.
Phasing self-build developments
A common query is about self-build developments. For example, for a self-build development of 4 dwellings, if the permission is not phased then all 4 owners would have to take liability and claim self-build relief before any works start. This can:
be tricky to coordinate
lead to problems with someone starting work before everyone else's paperwork is in order
lead to surcharges being applied.
If each plot is an individual phase, then commencement of any individual plot would only affect the CIL liability for that one plot. This means each individual plot owner could claim self-build relief. They can also start work when they want.
Phasing where only part of work is CIL liable
Developers may also want to consider phasing where there are only parts of a permission that is CIL liable. For example, the creation of a site with multiple dwellings. The dwellings themselves are CIL liable but the access and/or services to the site are not. It might therefore be useful to have the access/services as one phase and the dwellings as another phase. The commencement of the access/services phase would not trigger CIL payment for the dwellings.
If you want to know more about CIL and phasing please contact the Infrastructure Team. You can email them at cil@cornwall.gov.uk.