Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow local authorities to borrow against future Community Infrastructure Levy receipts to invest in infrastructure to help unlock housing growth.

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations 2010 (as amended) do not permit local authorities who charge CIL to borrow against the value of future receipts to invest in infrastructure, with the exception of the Mayor of London.

Regulations introduced in 2019 permit the Mayor of London to borrow against any future income generated by the Mayoral CIL charge and use the receipts collected to repay the loan value. This is specifically for funding relating to Crossrail.

Whilst local charging authorities are not permitted to borrow against the levy receipts, they may use the Levy to repay any expenditure on infrastructure that has already been incurred, under Regulation 60.

Presently, there are no plans to amend the existing Regulations to allow local authorities to borrow against any future receipts to invest in infrastructure to unlock housing growth.