Neighbourhood community infrastructure levy funding

What is the NCIL?

The Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) is a community funding programme that uses money collected from developers. 

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a non-negotiable charge that developers pay to councils on most new developments. It is used to deliver the infrastructure needed to support development. 

Investment can include:

• community facilities
• parks and open spaces
• transport improvements.

A portion of CIL can be set aside to be spent on neighbourhood priorities, known as NCIL. There are NCIL funds available for each ward, and you can influence how it is spent through your local assembly. NCIL money has to be spent to support the development of the area. It can be spent on infrastructure, or anything else that supports the demands that development places on an area.

Lewisham Council is taking a pioneering move to make sure the most deprived areas in the borough get extra money. We’re the first council to use a deprivation indicator to allocate additional money to areas.

How you can influence how NCIL funds are spent

We ask the local community to submit ideas and priorities of how you would like NCIL spent in your area. When these are decided we will also ask you to help decide which specific projects will get the funding. 

You can also submit your ideas at your local assembly.

Timelines for NCIL funding

• CIL is collected from developers throughout the year. We consult residents on how they would like NCIL funding to be spent every two years.
• We are currently looking for residents to submit their priorities. Visit Commonplace to submit priorities for your area and the deadline by which you need to do that by. 
• Decisions on priorities will then be made at local assembly meetings.
• Priorities will then be published on your local assembly page or ward Commonplace page, together with information on the next steps of how to submit project proposals and then timings for decisions on projects. 
  
  

Stages of NCIL funding

Stage one: Identifying priorities for your ward

This is the first round of the NCIL consultation process, where you can have your say and identify priorities for NCIL spending in your local area. 
You can submit ideas on Commonplace and your local assembly. Each ward decides what their priorities are at their local assembly. We will publish these priorities on your local assembly's webpage.  

Stage two: Open call for projects 

Based on the agreed priorities, people can then submit project ideas. You may need to work with us to develop your project ideas. Your local assembly coordinator will support you with this.

Stage three: Project evaluation and publishing of long list 

We will evaluate all the projects submitted and publish a longlist of projects for residents to review.

Stage four: Longlist prioritised into a project bank

You get to vote on what you think are the priorities. Each ward then decides what their priority projects are at their local assembly. These priority projects will be published on your local assembly site in the form of a ‘project bank’. 

Stage five: Funds allocated and project delivery

The Council makes the final decisions on what projects will be funded.
We will allocate money to the chosen projects and oversee each project. 

Stage six: Annual monitoring, evaluation and reporting

At various stages of delivery we will ask for a report on the progress of the project. 

We will review these and produce an annual report on progress in each ward.