CIL is essentially a charge imposed on development, through the planning process designed to fund the provision of infrastructure and support the development of the area. In Bristol, there are currently over £5m worth of funds for Bristol City Council to allocate to infrastructure.
However, according to the BMA, the process is 'littered with red tape' and many practices have not been successful in benefitting from the scheme. NHS England and Improvement have also stated that lots of NHS organisations are not properly engaging with their local council to obtain infrastructure funding, and are missing out on much needed resources.
Indeed, the 2018 NHS Improvement guide to securing s106 and CIL funds states that: "a few trusts have been very successful at securing s106 and/or CIL funding for projects, but such funding is the exception and not the rule."
However changes to the CIL regime mean that Councils will be forced to publish greater detail on their websites of the money collected. In turn, we expect Councils to make it more straight forward for applicants to ask for grants/funding.
The BMA has therefore called for CCGs to work with local authorities to ensure surgeries receive proper funding, as many practices are experiencing problems with capacity. For example, Canterbury and Coastal CCG wrote to Thanet District Council, Kent, arguing that practices were entitled to council funding to improve premises. Two of the practices in the network were at 'limited capacity', and over £250,000 was needed to upgrade the premises and get it ready to accommodate up to 1,000 new patients. It added that the primary care workforce might also need to expand to deal with additional demand.