In 2015, the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was introduced.
CIL is a charge, set out in legislation, which means councils receive payments from developers towards infrastructure needs.
The legislation intended for anyone building their own house to occupy, or a residential annex or extension, to be exempt from the CIL charge.
Many councils adopted a light-touch approach in terms of the paperwork required, assuming exemptions to householders and as the legislation expected.
However, the forms, provided by government, are overly confusing and easy to get wrong. These errors led to West Berkshire Council issuing charges to householders.
Mrs Maria Dobson of Kintbury brought this to my attention, having paid more than £25,000 in CIL. This seemed completely inappropriate to me.
Consequently, we introduced a discretionary review scheme enabling residents to apply if they believed they had been unfairly charged, and to have these charges repaid or cancelled where appropriate.
Refunds were made from CIL receipts. In effect, we withdrew the charge, as the legislation provides for.
As a result of the review process, homeowners have been refunded money they should never have been liable to pay. To date we have refunded nearly £300,000 to 18 applicants.
This has been the right thing for us to do and underlines our commitment to listen to residents and to always act with fairness and integrity.
Since the legislation did not intend for these applicants to be charged, I hope that our example is copied by other local councils.
I know that a great number of people have fallen foul of CIL’s complex paperwork across the country. Sums of more than £70,000 have been charged to individuals – life changing amounts of money that were never intended to be levied.