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CIL Commencement: When Has Development Started?
CIL commencement is the point at which a chargeable development is treated as having started for Community Infrastructure Levy purposes. It can trigger payment, a demand notice, surcharges and the loss of important review or appeal rights.
The difficult question is often not whether some work happened on the land, but whether a material operation was carried out as part of the chargeable development. Recent CIL appeals show why demolition, groundworks and earlier permissions need to be looked at carefully.
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What does CIL commencement mean?
Regulation 7 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 says that development is normally treated as commencing on the earliest date on which any material operation begins to be carried out on the relevant land.
For CIL, “material operation” has the same meaning as in section 56(4) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The date can therefore be triggered by a relatively early piece of physical work rather than the day the main building starts to rise.
Material operations that can start development
The statutory list includes:
- construction work in the course of erecting a building
- demolition of a building
- digging a trench which is to contain foundations
- laying an underground main or pipe to foundations or a foundation trench
- an operation in the course of laying out or constructing a road
- a change in the use of land which amounts to material development
Not every scrape of a digger bucket or piece of site preparation automatically starts the chargeable development. The work still has to fall within the statutory definition and relate to the development in question.
The work must belong to the chargeable development
This distinction is well illustrated by recent Planning Inspectorate CIL decisions. They are not court precedents, but they are useful examples of how the regulations are being applied to real facts.
In APP/D1590/L/25/3371980, decided on 25th August 2026, demolition had already taken place under a separate earlier planning permission. The later application referred to that demolition, but the appointed person was not satisfied that the earlier demolition was a material operation commencing the later chargeable development. The commencement-notice and late-payment surcharges were quashed.
In APP/C1435/L/25/3374476, works had been carried out to infill a pond. The evidence did not establish that the works formed part of the chargeable development, and the council had not identified which part of section 56(4) made the pond works a material operation. The decision is another warning against assuming that every earlier operation on the site is automatically CIL commencement.
Form 6 and the Commencement Notice
For most chargeable development, a valid Commencement Notice must reach the collecting authority before development starts. The current form is Form 6, and the detailed requirements are in regulation 67.
The authority must receive the notice at least one day before the development is due to commence. Once it receives the notice, it must send an acknowledgement. Do not treat sending the form and proving receipt as the same thing.
A useful example is APP/X3540/L/25/3370558, decided on 11th August 2026. The appellant said a Commencement Notice had been posted by ordinary first-class post, but the council had no record of receiving it and there was no proof of postage. The copy produced on appeal also failed to identify the Liability Notice as regulation 67 requires. The surcharge was upheld.
In practice, keep evidence showing exactly what was submitted, when it was submitted and that the collecting authority received it. Do not start merely because the form has left your outbox or gone into the post.
When a Commencement Notice is not required
The usual Commencement Notice requirement has specific exceptions. Government guidance identifies development which is exempt as minor development, development where a residential extension exemption has been granted, and development where the chargeable amount is zero.
The zero-charge exception needs particular care where the result depends on an existing-building deduction. In R (Herod Property Ltd) v Westminster City Council [2026] EWHC 2122 (Admin), the developer believed its Class MA conversion produced a zero CIL charge because of retained in-use floorspace. The High Court confirmed the serious risk of starting before a disputed zero calculation has been resolved with the collecting authority.
If a self-build home, residential annexe, charitable relief or social housing relief has been granted, a Commencement Notice is still required before work starts. A qualifying residential extension exemption is different: regulation 67(1A) removes the Commencement Notice requirement for that exempt extension.
What happens if you start without a valid notice?
If the authority knows that development has started without a valid Commencement Notice, or believes it started before the date in the notice, regulation 68 requires it to determine a deemed commencement date.
That date is then used for the demand notice and can affect when the levy became payable. Missing the notice can also remove the benefit of an instalment policy and trigger a CIL surcharge. The standard failure-to-submit surcharge under regulation 83 is 20% of the chargeable amount, capped at £2,500.
Where a qualifying self-build, annexe, charitable or social housing relief has already been granted and the Liability Notice or revised Liability Notice falls within the post-1st September 2019 regime, regulation 83(1A) requires the collecting authority to impose a surcharge equal to 20% of the notional chargeable amount, capped at £2,500, rather than automatically removing the relief. The narrow exception is where the authority is satisfied that the surcharge would be less than its reasonable administrative costs. Starting before the relief or exemption itself has been granted is a different problem and can prevent the claim succeeding.
Appealing a deemed commencement date
If a demand notice contains a deemed commencement date which you believe is wrong, regulation 118 provides a specific Planning Inspectorate appeal.
The appeal must be made before the end of 28 days beginning with the day the demand notice is issued. If the appeal succeeds, earlier demand notices cease to have effect, the appointed person determines a revised deemed commencement date and may quash a surcharge.
Our CIL appeals guide explains regulation 118 alongside surcharge, chargeable-amount and stop-notice appeals.
CIL commencement can end other appeal rights
Commencement does more than trigger payment. A review of the chargeable amount under regulation 113 can lapse when development starts, and the ordinary regulation 114 chargeable-amount appeal route can also be lost.
This is one of the central lessons from Herod. If you dispute the amount, the existing-building deduction or another part of the calculation, resolve the statutory review and appeal position before allowing works to commence.
Retrospective planning permission has a special rule
Regulation 7 has a special rule where planning permission is granted under section 73A for development already carried out, or is granted or modified on an enforcement appeal under section 177(1). For CIL purposes, that development is treated as commencing on the day the planning permission is granted or modified.
That CIL rule does not make retrospective permission a safe route to relief or exemption. Separate eligibility rules can still prevent an exemption being claimed after work has started, so the position should be checked before relying on retrospective regularisation.
Costs and the planning application
A Commencement Notice is part of the CIL collection process, not a planning application fee. The underlying planning permission or prior approval may have its own application cost. See our planning application fees guide.
If the underlying planning application is refused, that is separate from a CIL commencement dispute and can usually be challenged through the normal planning appeal route.
Relevant CIL rules and appeal decisions
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
CIL essentials
CIL Commencement Page Created: 30th August 2026