Opinion: CIL Payments – These Residents Deserve Justice

Published on: 20 May, 2025
Updated on: 21 May, 2025

Cllr Jane Austin

By Jane Austin

leader of the Conservative Group at Waverley Borough Council

Last October Steve Dally was at his wits’ end. For nearly four years he and his wife had been fighting Waverley Borough Council’s planning department after being charged a huge, £70,000 Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for his home extension.

CIL is a tax on developers to contribute to local infrastructure growth. Residential homeowners, self builds and extensions are exempt. If the net area increase is over 100 m² in some councils you need to fill out paperwork confirming the exemption.

CIL legislation is full on: you must pay within 90 days or risk seizure of assets…”

After years of fighting and exhausting all legal avenues open to them, Steve Dally and his wife, Godalming residents, eventually concluded they had no choice but to pay, so they remortgaged their home, interest only, and will have to sell their home in a few years’ time, once Steve retires.

But what’s scary is it turns out Steve wasn’t alone. Since last October, 20 different homeowners, and counting, have come to us asking for help. These people have been charged life changing amounts of CIL – between £40,000 and £235,000 – and they are traumatised.

Sir Jeremy Hunt MP with other CIL campaigners

CIL legislation is full on: you must pay within 90 days or risk seizure of assets and imprisonment. If you don’t comply you get slammed with thousands of pounds of late charges and fees on top. It is robust legislation, drafted to incentivise a developer to cough up; but utterly terrifying for homeowners.

Victims who were often completely unaware of the existence of CIL describe the ruthlessness of the CIL collecting team.

Some have had to sell the homes they have worked for all their lives. The stress and the injustice of it all has caused serious mental and physical health issues. Many have additionally spent £thousands on legal and other fees fighting the charges, unsuccessfully in most cases.

Since then, it’s been my mission and that of my Conservative group colleagues plus some Farnham Resident and Independent councillors to understand what on earth has happened here and to try to fix it.

Some have had to sell the homes they have worked for all their lives.”

In West Berkshire last year, a similar scandal culminated in the council undertaking a discretionary review and refunding £200,000 to 18 impacted homeowners. Other pockets of issues are popping up all over the country including Chester, Merton and Sevenoaks.

Approximately 200 councils across the country operate CIL (Guildford does not), but why has this situation become so bad in just a few of them – and especially Waverley?

1. CIL legislation is difficult to navigate and it’s not user-friendly – lots of form filling to complete within deadlines.
2. While some councils use a pragmatic common-sense approach in applying CIL, others (including Waverley) have done so slavishly without regard for its overriding intention.
3. Retrospective planning applications. The CIL ‘kiss of death’. If you apply for planning permission retrospectively or if you need to change your planning permission part way through the build you become automatically liable for CIL – with no right of appeal. If the council thinks you have started work on site before the relevant notices are served, that’s it – liable. No appeal. An error filling out the form? You are liable.
4. Finally, the CIL rates in Waverley are some of the highest in the country at £552 / sq m. This means a £15,000 levy in West Berkshire equates to an eye-watering £75,000 in Waverley.

How are these people being caught out?

• Mr Ian Colvin used a third-party to fill out the form; he has put his family home on the market so he can pay the £92,000 CIL charge to the council;
• Mr and Mrs S in Godalming put their temporary address on the CIL form so were deemed developers – £58,000 levy. No right of appeal;
• In Farnham, Karen Baxter has been charged £75k for a loft conversion and;
• The King family have been charged £55,000 for a 3sq m extension – they’ve been charged their own CIL and the developer’s CIL even though it was already paid!

The terrible irony of this all is that Waverley Council is currently collecting so much CIL it can’t even spend it – nearly £10 million is sitting unallocated in Waverley’s CIL bank account right now.

Their money must be refunded so they can get on with their lives.”

So, what next? In January we secured a resolution of WBC’s Full Council for a discretionary review of CIL cases to enable refunds, but now that is in doubt. To date, the words of  council leader Paul Follows and portfolio holder Liz Townsend do not fill us with confidence – is there a lack of political will to deliver a meaningful review?

There has been mention of a means tested CIL policy. So do only people the council deems to be poor enough deserve justice? Separately, we are escalating via the LGA and our MPs Sir Jeremy Hunt and Greg Stafford. CIL legislation needs to be changed so it will only catch those for whom it is intended: commercial developers.

We are passionately supporting these people, and we will not give up. This could have happened to any of us.

These residents deserve justice. Their money must be refunded so they can get on with their lives.

Share This Post