CIL Tax Relief & Community Leasing: Tips For Developers
The UK Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a key tool for local authorities. The scheme is designed to ensure that new developments contribute fairly to the cost of regional infrastructure and amenities. However, with the right approach, developers can go beyond simple compliance with CIL regulations, demonstrate an existing commitment to communities and improve relationships with CIL recipients to potentially gain relief or exemptions.
Through community leasing and partnerships with charities and good causes, it’s possible to fulfil CIL-related goals while achieving ethical property management, tax efficiency, business rate reductions, and social impact.
ASTOP connects developers and commercial landlords with charitable and community organisations to occupy empty buildings temporarily. We help everyone benefit from developer tax incentives, and our latest blog explains how this can help reduce costs, meet CIL goals, and enhance your development’s ESG profile.
ingful opportunities for charities and communities.
Understanding the CIL Tax Framework
What is the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)? Those working in development will be familiar with the fact that it is a local authority charge on new developments. Introduced under the Planning Act 2008, complementing existing Section 106 planning obligations, it funds any new and improved roads, transport links, and community facilities. In essence, if your development attracts new
Developers pay the levy when planning permission is granted for projects that create new floorspace or involve changes of use. Each local authority sets its own CIL rates, often based on location and development type. The funds are then used to improve the surrounding community and offset the impact of growth.
However, developers can demonstrate community benefits in various ways. CIL payments are only part of a broader picture.. Increasingly, councils recognise that ethical property use and community partnerships are valuable contributions to social value, and view them positively when reviewing planning decisions.
For example, leasing existing unoccupied commercial units to registered charities or community groups supports local regeneration and contributes to the same outcomes as CIL funding is designed to achieve: improved access to services, reduced blight, and strengthened neighbourhood cohesion. By taking this approach, developers can:
- Showcase proactive community engagement to planning authorities.
- Align their projects with the spirit of the CIL framework — creating real, lasting social value.
- Potentially access additional CIL exemptions or reliefs, subject to local authority discussions.
These steps not only help meet statutory obligations but also support stronger relationships with local councils and planning officers.
Turning Empty Properties into Community Assets
Empty commercial or mixed-use spaces often represent one of the most significant ongoing costs for developers. Vacant properties incur business rates, security, insurance, and maintenance costs, all while generating no income.
Through community leasing, developers can temporarily transform empty spaces into thriving community assets. ASTOP matches developers’ empty units with suitable charities, ensuring all legal and compliance aspects are handled efficiently.
When a registered charity, community group or good cause occupies a property, even for a short-term lease, developers gain multiple benefits:
- Reduced holding costs: Good causes can qualify for up to 80% mandatory business rates relief, with potential for discretionary top-ups from local authorities.
- Improved property security: Active use deters vandalism and squatting, lowering maintenance and insurance costs.
- Enhanced community goodwill: Demonstrating a commitment to social value helps improve developer reputation and strengthens ESG credentials.
- Positive local engagement: Temporary charitable use can complement regeneration efforts and support smoother planning relations.
Imagine an unused retail space becoming a local arts hub, youth training centre, or community food bank. Such uses make for highly visible examples of community leasing in action. Developers maintain control and flexibility, while the community gains a vital service. Community leasing is a much more productive use of assets than leaving properties vacant.
Charity leasing for developers is a win-win scenario that helps developers bridge the gap between commercial responsibility and social impact, ensuring properties serve a purpose even while awaiting sale, redevelopment, or occupation. Such moves work hand in hand with the CIL levy to improve communities and provide value to local authorities.
Financial, ESG & Reputational Benefits for Developers
The benefits of leasing vacant commercial property to charities and good causes extend beyond supporting an argument for CIL exemptions or relief. A move to occupy otherwise empty properties brings benefits to any property developer’s ESG strategy, CSR initiatives and local reputation.
ESG and Reputational Benefits
CIL and Tax Relief
By temporarily leasing to a registered charity, developers can demonstrate a track record of providing direct community benefits that align with CIL objectives. This makes the case for CIL relief or exemption stronger.
The leasing to a charity or community group also means business rates relief is applicable. This, in itself, dramatically reduces the financial burden of holding unoccupied units. In many cases, it allows developers to keep assets active and compliant, at minimal cost, while awaiting planning outcomes or tenant interest.
ESG and CSR Value
Community leasing directly supports a property developer’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts.
Adaptive, sustainable property use and re-use, for example, prevent waste and reduce the environmental impact of long-term vacancy or, ultimately, demolition. Charities provide local employment, training, and essential services, building resilient social communities, and compliant leasing structures demonstrate that developers operate ethical business processes.
Stronger Reputation & Relationships
A history of supporting communities can only enhance a developer’s profile with local authorities. Councils, investors and other stakeholders are increasingly favouring partners who are already delivering measurable social value. Charity leasing gives developers the opportunity to strengthen their standing with local authorities. Showcasing their commitment to responsible regeneration can only be a good thing.
How ASTOP Supports Developers
ASTOP’s property consultancy services help developers, landlords, and councils unlock the hidden potential of vacant properties.
Through its Charity Leasing Programme, ASTOP:
- Matches appropriate charities to available units.
- Handles lease documentation and compliance with local authority standards.
- Ensures alignment with CIL goals and business rates regulations.
- Simplifies short-term agreements, often within a matter of weeks.
The Community Infrastructure Levy is designed to ensure that development benefits local communities. Yet developers can go beyond paying the levy by actively contributing to local regeneration through community leasing.
Working with ASTOP makes sustainable property use seamless. Our empty property solutions help combine tax efficiency, CIL tax relief, and social impact into a single, ethical property strategy. For developers, this means peace of mind: ethical use, cost savings, and smoother planning relationships, all without complex legal administration.
Explore More
You can read more about economic regeneration, charities looking for retail spaces, and how landlords benefit from leasing properties to charities in our blog pages.
