The High Court has issued another reminder of the intricacies of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) regime, and the inflexible nature of the legislation. In this instance, there had been a back and forth with a Developer who contended that the issue of a revised liability notice (after an amended to the original scheme) effectively meant that previous liabilities were expunged, along with any interest for late payment due in respect of the original liability notice.
An Inspector had originally held in the Developer's favour but the Council successfully judicially reviewed that decision. The end result is an additional c£450k in late payment interest and a reminder to all to take great care in relation to the liability (and late payment!) provisions when it comes to CIL!
Describing the developer's arguments as "circular", she noted that a revised demand notice has to be issued whenever a late payment surcharge is imposed. If the due date for payment of CIL were to be reset on the issue of each new demand notice, the power to impose late payment surcharges "could never arise and is rendered meaningless".
