Neighbourhood Proportion

Neighbourhood CIL (NCIL) is intended to help address the demands of a new development on the local area. It is therefore distributed and spent at a local level to help smaller scale projects. It is a great opportunity for communities to access funding to support local projects and initiatives in their area.

More significant infrastructure projects will be funded through the Strategic CIL Fund. 25% of all CIL receipts in an area will be set aside in the NCIL fund if the area is covered by an adopted neighbourhood plan. Elsewhere up to 15% of receipts will be set aside in the NCIL fund.

How NCIL funds are used is dependent on whether the area where the development takes place is in a parished area (i.e. one with a Parish Council) or an unparished area (i.e. an area without a parish council).

In parished areas the funds are passed directly onto the Parish Council (every six months) and they are responsible for deciding how to spend the money and then spending it; whereas in non-parished areas the Council retains the funds and allocates it to ward based, local community projects.

The rest of this page describes how the non-parished ward based NCIL is used, for parished areas it is suggested you contact the individual parish council direct to ask them how they use their CIL funds. The bidding process outlined below does not apply to parished areas.

What is the process?

Engagement will take place with the community (within non parished ward areas) to raise awareness of the funding available for communities to use.

There will be an opportunity for groups within wards to ‘bid’ for funding from the ‘ward pot’ for their area. Groups/Individuals should request a call back from the CIL team to discuss plans for a project by emailing cil@solihull.gov.uk (detailing your name, phone number and a brief description of your project idea).

The fund total available is released annually and these funds will be open to bids throughout the summer and autumn. Projects will then be assessed against our Scoring Matrix Criteria and reported to Cabinet Member for Communities and Leisure for final decision in the winter.

If you are interested in applying for funding, please read our help sheet and see the ‘how to apply’ section of this page.

What is available to bid for in 2024?

Wards that have reached the pot threshold (of £10,000) and are open for bids are listed below:

Projects must be classified as ‘infrastructure’ and/or must benefit the community (by alleviating the demands development places on an area). Monies cannot be used to fund events or fetes.

More information as to what will be considered for allocation of CIL funds can be found within our help sheet. Bids can be made for either part or the full amount.

Bids for the 2024 funding can now formally be made. The closing date for submissions is Friday 1 November 2024. Projects will then be reviewed to enable them to be reported to the Cabinet Member for Communities in January 2025. 

How to apply

The following criteria is mandatory to bid for Neighbourhood CIL:

• project should be classed as Infrastructure/meets the demands development places on an area
• projects should not require on-going maintenance

The body applying should be:

• formally constituted
• has a bank account requiring two unrelated signatories
• has at least two unrelated management committee members if they are an unincorporated organisation or voluntary group
• demonstrates good financial management procedures including records of income and expenditure (or to be partnering with a delivery body who has these structures in place

To apply for funding from a ward allocation pot, please email the CIL team to request a discussion of a potential project - cil@solihull.gov.uk

Please leave your name, number and a brief description of your project idea.

Following a brief discussion with a member of the team about your project idea, an application form will be sent to you.

All applications must provide a detailed description of the nature of the project, including how much money is likely to be needed and for what purpose. It must identify every party with a legal interest in or responsibility for the land/buildings where the project will be undertaken.

The key stakeholders included in the project must agree to the nature of the project (including, spending cost, timescales, extent etc.).

An application to allocate NCIL will be unable to be taken forward for consideration if it does not make an attempt to meet all of the criteria listed within the guidance sheet. However, the project will be assessed against a set of criteria and will be considered on a case by case basis.

Where possible, grants will be paid in arrears, i.e. after the project has been completed. However, we recognise that this is not always possible, particularly for small voluntary and community groups who we are keen should be able to access these funds.  

When making your applications we will ask whether payment in arrears would present you with any difficulties and, if your bid is successful, we will work with you to seek an alternative approach to ensure that the project can be delivered.  Please note that this will have no bearing on assessing whether the project should be funded or not.

If your project can’t be funded using NCIL, then you may wish to consider whether there are any alternative community funding or support arrangements in place. These are detailed on our Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Funding page.