Issue - meetings

Further to Minute 71 (12 December 2017), the Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement introduced proposals relating to the allocation of Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) funding. 

The Cabinet Member advised that the Council already had established models for supporting local community groups through projects such as Civil Society, the Local Giving model and the B&D Lottery, and the NCIL represented a further, significant means of providing financial support within that wider model.  The proposals for NCIL funding would commence from March 2019 and include the establishment of a Residents’ Panel to evaluate eligible bids.  It was also planned to create a NCIL endowment fund, aimed at providing an ongoing source of funding for local projects and initiatives in support of the Council’s ‘No One Left Behind’ principles. 

Cabinet Members welcomed the proposals and commented on the wide range of initiatives being progressed by the Council for the benefit of the local community.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Agree the establishment of a grants programme for the distribution of the NCIL and the draft NCIL scoring criteria;

(ii)  Agree the establishment of a Residents’ Panel to input into decisions on the allocation of NCIL;

(iii)  Delegate authority to the Director of Policy and Participation, in consultation with the Director of Inclusive Growth, the Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement, the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing and the Cabinet Member Finance, Performance and Core Services, to approve NCIL bids of up to £200,000 in any one bid submission period and to take the necessary steps to adjust the process, as appropriate, as NCIL embedded in the Borough;

(iv)  Agree to use NCIL to create an endowment, which would fund community projects long term; and

(v)  Note that the NCIL decisions being sought were relevant to the emerging resident and community-led Local Giving model.