Engineers urge caution over infrastructure levy

. With Government also estimating that £200bn needs to be invested in the UK’s infrastructure in next decade, ICE says the CIL will become an increasingly important funding stream.

Lord Jenkin of Roding tabled two amendments on behalf of ICE and supported by the Local Government Technical Advisers Group (TAG), the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) and Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transportation (ADEPT), seeking to clarify that the CIL would:

Only be used for maintenance and development of new infrastructure, not revenue funding of existing infrastructure be prevented from being used for purposes other than infrastructure needs if passed onto neighborhoods affected by the development as proposed. Speaking in the Lords debate, Lord Jenkin of Roding he said: "The question is: can it be extended to something that is not infrastructure? I contend that the original intention of the Act was perfectly clear and that the answer to that has to be no.

"We have to be very careful. We are talking about very large sums of money. We have to get it right."

ICE expects that the purpose of the CIL will be given further consideration at the Report stage in the Autumn. In the meantime Institution representatives are meeting with Earl Attlee to discuss the issue further.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and the British Property Federation (BPF) have also expressed concern regarding the changes to the CIL.