Local authorities who are struggling with the effects of restrictions in the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations 2010 on funding local infrastructure from section 106 contributions are set to benefit from changes that came into effect in England on 1 September.

There can be no doubt that financial contributions from developers play an important role in the provision of local infrastructure to support development. However, the best mechanism for securing such revenue is perhaps not so clear. Since its inception in 2010 the Government has made it very clear that CIL remains its preferred means of collecting developer contributions. However, despite the Government’s best efforts to incentivise local authorities to use CIL, uptake remains patchy and it is arguably not quite the success that the Government had hoped for.