The proposed South Worcestershire CIL charges have hit a new hurdle after an independent examiner told three councils to revisit their housing viability evidence. Keith Holland says their assessment must now account for England’s Building Safety Levy, which started applying to relevant building control submissions on 1st October 2026. His letter is dated 9th October and has now appeared in the examination documents.
This is a request for additional evidence during examination of a draft Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule for Worcester, Malvern Hills and Wychavon. It is not a decision to reject the proposed charges or evidence that a revised tariff is already in force. The examiner wants the financial assessment revisited before issuing his report, followed by a focused two-week opportunity for further representations once the new evidence is available.
For housebuilders and landowners, the reason matters. Local charges contribute towards the infrastructure needed to support new development, but the combined costs must not undermine viability across the area. I would read this as a necessary viability check, not a verdict that the proposed rates are unaffordable. Some South Worcestershire CIL residential rates would rise substantially under the proposals, so the examiner needs to know whether the councils’ testing still works in light of the additional national charge.
South Worcestershire CIL examiner wants a revised assessment
Mr Holland’s official examination letter, listed as ED2, identifies a gap in the viability study prepared by Aspinall Verdi in December 2025. The consultancy had not included the Building Safety Levy because its application was uncertain when the financial work was done. The national levy is now relevant to the assumptions behind the charging schedule, the examiner says.
He has asked the authorities to review residential viability to reflect the new charge and, if appropriate, obtain revised recommendations from Aspinall Verdi. An addendum to the existing study is one possible route. The request goes to the evidence supporting the proposed rates, rather than merely updating a description of legislation.
Once prepared, the addendum must be placed on the examination website. People who responded during the Regulation 16 consultation or the subsequent modifications exercise are to be notified, and interested parties given two weeks to comment on the revised evidence and its implications for the proposed residential CIL rates.
The letter urges prompt action to avoid delaying the examination. It does not specify when the revised study will be ready or when the two-week period will begin. It would therefore be misleading to advertise that later consultation as already open or to claim that the examiner has recommended a particular alternative charge.
Which proposed residential charges are affected?
The authorities submitted the draft schedule for independent examination on 24th June 2026. Its comparison table proposes £120 per square metre for several greenfield housing categories against a stated previous base rate of £54.80. Small brownfield housing developments of nine homes or fewer, outside designated rural areas, would move from a stated £0 base rate to £120 per square metre.
Other proposed categories remain unchanged, including certain brownfield developments of ten or more homes outside designated rural areas. The draft also provides a proposed £0 rate for strategic growth sites, where substantial infrastructure is expected to be delivered by developers. Different rates reflect the type, scale and location of development, subject to the legal evidence for any differences.
These are draft comparison figures, not bills that developers should simply apply to current projects. The locally applicable adopted schedules, statutory reliefs and indexation still need to be checked. Until the review is completed and new charging schedules are adopted, the existing arrangements remain in place. The South Worcestershire CIL examination is testing what those replacement arrangements should be.
The examiner’s new letter does not state that the £120 proposals are too high. It requires the councils to show whether the proposed levels remain justified when the additional national levy is included in the residential development calculation.
Why the Building Safety Levy makes a difference
Community Infrastructure Levy helps councils pay for development-related infrastructure. The Building Safety Levy is a separate national charge under the Building Safety Act framework, applying to relevant residential projects through the building control system. The rules on exemptions, reliefs and submission dates determine which projects are liable: developers should not assume that every scheme pays both amounts.
Planning Geek’s Building Safety Levy guide sets out the national rules, while our October commencement report explains why the building control submission date is important. What is new here is the examiner’s insistence that the cost be reflected in a particular local charging examination.
Viability assessments consider the combined effect of building costs, land values, affordable housing, other planning obligations, relevant taxes or levies and an appropriate return. An additional statutory charge can reduce the capacity to absorb local contributions. That does not necessarily make any proposed CIL rate unviable, but it means the evidence must show the position rather than assume it.
In the South Worcestershire CIL review, the practical question is whether the overall level of cost still permits enough development to come forward. The answer may differ between small and large schemes, brownfield and greenfield sites, and developments benefiting from reliefs. The independent examination, not a newspaper headline, will determine whether the councils have made their case.
What the infrastructure figures show
A separate council report dated 1st October 2026 was submitted after the examiner’s hearing on 14th September. It sets out about £438.1 million in identified infrastructure costs, with an estimated £150.9 million funding gap after the sources included in that exercise. Those figures are planning estimates, not a single-year deficit or money the authorities have already spent.
The same report models around £126.6 million in possible levy income from the draft rates: approximately £22.1 million attributed to housing allocations, £104.1 million to employment allocations and a smaller retail contribution. Its modelling excludes specified strategic sites proposed for zero CIL and sites already benefiting from permission. Forecast contributions are not guaranteed receipts.
The figures help explain why the three councils are seeking to update their charging schedules. Transport, schools, green infrastructure and other services need funding alongside growth. But an infrastructure funding gap does not, by itself, establish that every proposed charge is viable. The South Worcestershire CIL examination must balance the desirability of raising contributions against the potential effect on development delivery.
The council’s website asks for comments on the earlier hearing follow-up material by 20th October 2026. That existing deadline is separate from the future two-week exercise addressing the Building Safety Levy viability addendum. Both are parts of the examination, but they cover different evidence and should not be confused.
What landowners and developers should watch next
The next substantive step is the revised housing viability assessment and any updated recommendations from Aspinall Verdi. Once it is published, the councils are expected to notify relevant participants and open the focused comment period requested by Mr Holland. He will then consider the responses before completing his report.
Anyone promoting land in the area should check the proposed category for their site, keep financial assumptions current and follow the official CIL examination library. Developers should also check the separate national levy rules for their projects rather than counting the same costs twice or relying on an unadopted local rate.
Earlier consultation responses remain on the record: the examiner expressly says that participants need not repeat them. The forthcoming opportunity is intended to deal with the updated Building Safety Levy evidence, not reopen every argument about the charging schedule.
Until the South Worcestershire CIL examination produces its findings and any revised schedules are adopted, no one can responsibly claim that the proposed higher residential rates are either confirmed or abandoned. The evidenced change is the examiner’s demand for another financial check, with a further consultation to follow.
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