No more separate CIL form – it’s now built into your planning application 

If you’ve ever had a planning application returned as invalid because of a missing or incorrectly attached CIL Additional Information form, this update is for you. 

From Thursday 6th August, we’re changing the way Community Infrastructure Levy information is collected through the Planning Portal. The short version: you will no longer need to find, fill in, and upload a separate CIL form alongside your application. It will be built into the application journey itself.

A quick bit of background 

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a charge that some councils apply to certain types of new development. If you’re submitting a planning application to an authority that operates CIL, you’re required to provide CIL Additional Information as part of your submission – even when no levy is ultimately payable. 

Until now, this has meant locating the CIL Additional Information form separately, completing it, and attaching it as a PDF to your application. It’s a straightforward enough requirement, but easy to overlook – especially for applicants who aren’t submitting applications regularly.  Missing CIL forms have been one of the most common reasons councils have had to return applications as invalid before they can be registered. 

What’s changed 

The CIL questions are now part of the Planning Portal application form completion process. When you’re completing an application for an authority that charges CIL, you’ll see a dedicated set of CIL questions at the relevant point in the form journey. You answer them there and then, and the system takes care of the rest. 

You don’t need to generate, download, or attach anything separately. The CIL Additional Information document is created automatically when you submit your application and is included in your submission package.

This is available for the following application types: 

• Full planning permission 

• Full planning & demolition in a conservation area 

• Full planning & display of advertisements 

• Full planning & listed building consent 

• Householder planning permission 

• Householder planning & demolition in a conservation area 

• Householder planning & listed building consent 

• Approval of reserved matters 

• Removal/variation of a condition 

• Lawful development: existing use 

• Lawful development: proposed use 

What this means in practice 

The most obvious benefit is that you can’t accidentally miss it. Because the CIL questions are part of the form journey, they’ll appear at the right point if the authority you’re submitting to charges CIL. You’ll answer them as part of completing your application, the same way you’d answer any other section. 

For agents and professionals who submit applications regularly, it also means one less document to manage. No more tracking down the latest version of the CIL form, no more attaching PDFs and hoping the file name is right. The application package will be complete once you hit submit. 

And for anyone who’s experienced the frustration of having an application returned for something as avoidable as a missing form, it means a better chance of your submission going straight to registration without the delay of a back-and-forth with the council. 

Does this affect you?

The CIL questions will only appear if the council you’re submitting to charges Community Infrastructure Levy. If your application is going to an authority that doesn’t operate CIL, nothing changes – you’ll see the same form journey as before. 

Not sure whether your local authority charges CIL? Most councils publish their CIL charging schedule on their website, or you can check with the planning department directly before you start your application. 

What about applications already in progress? 

This change only applies to new applications started from the go-live date onwards. If you’ve already started an application, or if you’ve previously saved a draft, it will continue to work exactly as it did before. You won’t need to restart anything. 

Any questions? 

If you run into anything unexpected or have questions about how the new CIL questions work, our support team is on hand to help. 

Contact us at: support@planningportal.co.uk