Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Joint Committee

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Joint Committee

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Joint Committee was created in January 2024 by Cheltenham Borough Council, Gloucester City Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council. Find out more about how the committee was formed.

Its main functions are to make decisions on the allocation of the share of the CIL receipts paid by relevant development to each member council retained as the strategic infrastructure fund, locally named the ‘Infrastructure Fund’, that each CIL authority can use to fund infrastructure associated with development of its administrative area.

The CIL Joint Committee operates under agreed Terms of Reference (ToRs).

• CIL Joint Committee Terms of Reference.
• CIL Joint Officer Working Group Terms of Reference.

Tewkesbury Borough Council hosts the meetings and administration for the CIL Joint Committee.

What the CIL Joint Committee does
The CIL Joint Committee brings together the CIL Infrastructure Fund from the three councils and makes decisions on how this funding is allocated.

How CIL Joint Committee Decisions are made
It has one voting member from each council, and a voting member from each council must be present for it to take decisions. All decisions must be made with the agreement of all three member councils.

How CIL Infrastructure Fund money can be allocated

The CIL Strategic Infrastructure Fund, named the Infrastructure Fund, is the CIL receipts that remain once CIL administration costs and the Neighbourhood CIL (NCIL) are deducted. NCIL is not managed by the CIL Joint Committee.

There is a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework that controls how CIL operates and CIL receipts can be allocated and spent.

Relevant legislation and guidance:

• CIL Regulations 2010 (as amended).
• Planning Practice Guidance – CIL.
• Planning Act 2008, section 216. (definition of “infrastructure”)

The law requires the infrastructure fund receipts to be spent on funding the provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure that supports development in a council’s area. In some cases, funding may be spent outside the area if it benefits development within it. The use criteria will be considered by the CIL Joint Committee when making decisions.

Infrastructure includes roads and other transport facilities, flood defences, schools and other educational facilities, medical facilities (including hospitals, GP facilities and other health facilities), social care facilities, sporting and recreational facilities, district heating schemes, police stations and other community safety facilities, open spaces e.g. play areas, park and green spaces, community and cultural facilities. This list is not exhaustive.

The CIL Joint Committee subdivision of the infrastructure fund receipts

The councils decided to bring the CIL Infrastructure Fund receipts together from the three councils and the CIL Joint Committee, and then decided to split the CIL Infrastructure Fund as follows:

• 75 per cent available for allocation to ‘Strategic Infrastructure’ projects.
• 25 per cent ringfenced to support ‘Local Strategic Infrastructure’ projects.

This split is reviewed regularly and may change in future or be removed completely.

The difference between the project types is explained below.

Strategic Infrastructure Projects
Projects of wider strategic benefit that support development across all three council areas, for example, on the Strategic Road Nework (SRN), or sustainable travel projects to support strategic developments.

Local Strategic Infrastructure Projects
Projects of district level strategic importance that that will benefit development from only one, or two in any combination, of the councils’ areas, and of greater benefit to a defined local community or area. The local strategic project is unable to be funded through NCIL and other funding opportunities alone.

Each council’s and shared potential CIL spend priorities are listed in the annual Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) Infrastructure List. The CIL Joint Committee considers this list in its decision making, however projects not on the list could still be considered for funding. This can include the early feasibility stage for some projects.

A copy of the Shared Infrastructure List December 2025 as separate document to the latest published Infrastructure Funding Statement is below.

• Shared Infrastructure List December 2025

A copy can also be found as Part 3 of each council’s latest Infrastructure funding statement.

• Cheltenham Borough Council Infrastructure Funding Statements
• Gloucester City Council Infrastructure Funding Statements
• Tewkesbury Borough Council Infrastructure Funding Statements

Projects that cannot be funded

The CIL Infrastructure Fund cannot be used for:

• Projects that are not strategic in scale.
• Projects that are not considered fall under the definition of infrastructure under the relevant legislation and regulations.
• Projects that do not support development of the relevant area.

Please avoid submission of a project funding bid through the CIL Joint Committee process that would not meet the minimum criteria set out above as it cannot be considered for funding on principle.

Local, non-strategic projects should instead be considered for funding through other funding opportunities that may include Neighbourhood CIL (NCIL). Some examples of this may include replacing local play area equipment at a recreation ground, a local road safety scheme, for example a pedestrian crossing or speed reduction zone.

NCIL is allocated by:

• Parish/town councils (where they exist)
• for Cheltenham Borough Council non-parish areas, through the Cheltenham CIL Neighbourhood Panel
• for Gloucester City Council non-town council area under its NCIL process

Please contact the relevant parish council or town council for further information about NCIL receipts it may have.

Every area of Tewkesbury Borough is covered by a parish or town council.

Only parish or town council administrative areas in which CIL liable development that generates a CIL payment will receive NCIL payments.

Submission of CIL Infrastructure Fund Project Bids

Under the first CIL Joint Committee Infrastructure Fund bid round, completed in January 2025, twelve bids were received.

Bids may be submitted for:

• Strategic infrastructure projects.
• Local strategic infrastructure projects.

In September 2025, the committee agreed in principle to allocate an additional up to £20 million towards the M5 Junction 10 Scheme by 2029. This will limit funding available for other strategic projects, however bids are still encouraged to build a pipeline of strategic infrastructure projects for future consideration.

The next CIL Infrastructure Fund Bid round opens on Monday 1 June 2026 and close at 11.59pm on Friday, 7 August 2026.

What you need to submit

CIL Infrastructure Fund project bids privacy notice.

Completion of the CIL Infrastructure Fund projects bid form and supporting documents should be as succinctly as possible, written in plain English ensuring that the bid is easy to understand and covers all the key elements to complete it. Consideration will be given to commercially sensitive information that it may contain.

To support completion of a project bid, please refer to the notes.

To be considered complete, a bid submission must include:

1. CIL Infrastructure Fund Project Bid form
2. Appendix A – Site location plan (to be obtained by applicant)
3. Appendix B – Project costs and funding tracker
4. Appendix C – Climate change assessment tool
5. Appendix D – Risk assessment (to be produced by applicant)
6. Appendix E – CIL Regulation 59 Compliance Statement
7. Appendix F – Project timeline and delivery plan (to be produced by applicant)

CIL Infrastructure Fund project bids must be submitted using the webform below. The form must be completed from start to finish in one go and cannot be saved part way through.  Please make sure you have all the information ready and documents available to upload.

If there is a problem using the webform, please contact the CIL Joint Committee using the contact details on this page.

CIL Infrastructure Fund assessment criteria

CIL Infrastructure Fund bids are assessed using the CIL Infrastructure Fund Project bid assessment form.

Whilst the assessment form and overall score is not the only consideration for the CIL Joint Committee it will form part of a future allocation recommendation if a bid is considered as valid.

Timescale to access CIL Infrastructure Fund receipts after allocation decision made

A CIL Joint Committee decision to allocate CIL Infrastructure Fund receipts to a project does not allow the implementation of that decision. The process required to complete payment to the recipient organisation has many stages. This includes the reporting of its decisions to the respective member councils and then instructing One Legal to enter into a CIL grant funding agreement (that would not normally be started until after the implementation has been agreed). The completion of a CIL grant funding agreement to manage use and payment of CIL receipts could be at minimum six months after a CIL Joint Committee decision.

The CIL Joint Committee Meetings Agendas and Decisions

Meeting agendas and minutes are published by Tewkesbury Borough Council.

Unless considered as an urgent decision, before acting on CIL Joint Committee decisions they must be reported for scrutiny purposes through each of the member councils, Cabinet at Cheltenham Borough, Cabinet at Gloucester City Council and Executive Committee for Tewkesbury Borough (or Council as an alternative). The reports are taken to the next available meeting after a CIL Joint Committee meeting date.

CIL Joint Committee Project Allocation Decisions

An overview of the CIL Joint Committee allocation decisions to 4 February 2026 is provided here.