How we spend CIL/S106 contributions

Draft Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Funding Programme 2025 Consultation

Since 2021, the Council has charged a levy on developers for carrying out certain new developments across the Borough. The money we raise can be used to pay for a wide range of community infrastructure that is needed to support the new development, such as healthcare, transport, open space, flood risk-related schemes and community facilities.

Through the annual ‘CIL Funding Programme’, the Council identifies larger-scale, strategic projects to allocate strategic CIL funding to. After engaging with infrastructure providers, a bidding round is held each year to identify a long list of schemes for consideration. 

In this year’s strategic CIL funding round, we received 9 bids, described in more detail in the ‘Overview of all CIL Bids’ document below.

These bids have been assessed by our Developer Contributions Advisory Group against a set of criteria in our adopted Developer Contributions Governance Arrangements. Based on this exercise, the Advisory Group has recommended a shortlist of strategic schemes for inclusion on the Council’s strategic CIL Funding Programme – see the draft Programme below.

We would like to hear your views on the recommended projects. It is recommended that 6 schemes are shortlisted for the CIL Funding Programme, with strategic CIL allocations amounting to £2,136,492.

Consultation documents

Have Your Say

Click on the link below to have your say on whether you agree, or disagree, with how we propose to use the strategic CIL monies.

Survey form

Send us your views by 11:59pm on Thursday 28 August 2025.

If you have any questions, or would like to request a hard copy of the survey form to complete, please contact the IDC team by email at IDCTeam@runnymede.gov.uk or on 01932 838383.

Important Links

Next Steps

Your name and comments, but not your contact details, will be reported to officers and members at a Corporate Management Committee later this year, who will then take the final decision as to how strategic CIL monies will be spent.

As this is a public consultation, your comments will be available for public inspection and therefore cannot be treated as confidential ‐ we cannot accept anonymous responses. Please complete this section with your details. We may publish your name (first name and surname) and the organisation you are representing (where applicable) against any comments you make. Please make sure you only give information you are happy for others to see.  All other personal information (e.g. address, email address) will be kept confidential by the Council.

We may retain your personal information when you respond to planning policy consultations. This data will be held securely internally. Information you supply, including your contact details, will be held for an appropriate period to support the service.  We may share your information with other council officers to respond to your comments.  Other than publishing your name (first name and surname) and the organisation you are representing alongside any comments you submit, your personal information will not be disclosed to any third parties without your prior consent.

There are two types of CIL funding that the Council collects and retains for allocation and spending:

  • Strategic CIL Funding can be allocated and spent borough-wide.
  • Neighbourhood CIL (NCIL) Funding can be allocated and spent on smaller-scale, local projects.

This consultation seeks views on strategic CIL expenditure only. In a separate exercise, the Council engages with local communities throughout the year to agree how best to spend neighbourhood CIL receipts, and a Neighbourhood CIL Funding round is currently open for applications: Neighbourhood CIL Funding Round 2025

There is currently over £7m available in the strategic CIL fund, and if this year’s recommended CIL Funding Programme is approved, over £5m will be available for infrastructure providers to bid for in future bidding rounds.

FAQs

We manage an Infrastructure Delivery Schedule (IDS) which lists all those projects identified as being necessary to support the delivery of the Local Plan.  Each year, the Council welcomes bids from strategic infrastructure providers to deliver projects on the IDS and an assessment is made by the Developer Contributions Advisory Group against a set of criteria, to prepare a shortlist of recommendations. This shortlist is called the draft CIL Funding Programme, and we go out to public consultation with it each year so that you can tell us whether you agree or disagree with the recommended projects and any other options for spending. Our Corporate Management Committee then makes the final decision on those projects that will receive CIL funding, taking account of the consultation responses. 

When we collect CIL, most of it is kept by the Council to spend on infrastructure anywhere across the Borough – this is called ‘Strategic CIL (SCIL)’.  However, a portion (usually 15%) of the CIL collected in an area is retained and spent on neighbourhood projects in collaboration with the local community. This is called 'Neighbourhood CIL (NCIL)' and is designed to make sure that some monies are always spent in the area where the development(s) occurred. A separate bidding round takes place each year for NCIL expenditure.

The amount of NCIL held by the Council varies depending on how much development the area has experienced. When we make decisions on how to spend SCIL, we should also consider whether there is any NCIL available in that area. This makes sure that we get the best value from our CIL monies. 

We must spend SCIL monies on community infrastructure that supports new development. Our Local Plan evidence base, and the Infrastructure Funding Statement, sets out the types of infrastructure that we will provide using CIL monies. Within Runnymede, this will include things like open spaces, play areas, parks, playing pitches, outdoor sports facilities, libraries, health facilities, community centres, waste facilities, public realm, leisure facilities, sustainable transport schemes, cycling and walking networks, and flood defence schemes.  

To assess which projects may be suitable for strategic CIL funding, we assess schemes against a set of criteria in our Developer Contributions Governance Arrangements: 

  1. Are CIL monies needed to deliver the project?
  2. Which category does the project sit within the Council’s hierarchy of prioritisation?
  3. Does the project meet a local need or demand that has arisen from new development i.e. is the project clearly defined as ‘infrastructure’ as per the CIL Regulations?
  4. When can the infrastructure be delivered?
  5. Are clear project costs and funding known? Are other sources of funding available? Is the delivery of the infrastructure already in the strategy of another agency to fund and deliver?
  6. Are there 'Neighbourhood' CIL monies available in the Settlement Area in which the project is located within that could be used to wholly or partly fund the project?
  7. Does the project help meet at least one of the Council's Corporate Priorities?
  8. Is the project listed in the Council’s Infrastructure Delivery Schedule / Infrastructure Funding Statement, or is it for infrastructure that supports growth of the area identified within a relevant local strategy e.g. the Council’s Corporate Plans and Strategies?
  9. Could the scheme help facilitate or accelerate the delivery of other major infrastructure in the Borough, particularly if aligned with other funding sources?

IDS is the ‘Infrastructure Delivery Schedule’. The IDS is a working document which is regularly updated. The IDS identifies infrastructure projects and improvements which may be needed to support the growth and development set out within the Runnymede 2030 Local Plan. It includes information on infrastructure schemes, projects costs and funding gaps along with timescales and delivery partners. Each year, it is possible that infrastructure providers will apply for strategic CIL funding to contribute towards the costs of some of the projects on the IDS (although not all projects will require CIL funding).

S106, or planning obligations, are legal obligations entered into by developers to mitigate the impacts of a development proposal by way of financial contributions. S106 funding can be used an alternative funding source to help deliver infrastructure projects, but S106 has been largely replaced by the CIL regime in Runnymede to deliver infrastructure to support new development.