England's first councils were supposed to be testing the Infrastructure Levy, which replaces developer contributions, by 2025. It is now September 2026, the power that switches it on has never been used, and the promised consultation on its rules has never appeared.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
In short. Part 4 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 creates the Infrastructure Levy, a single charge meant to replace Section 106 planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy across England. Section 255(4) of the Act leaves the date it starts entirely to the Secretary of State's discretion, unlike almost everything else in the Act, which came into force automatically within two months of Royal Assent. The government's own 2023 consultation document promised "test and learn" councils would be operating the Levy from 2025/26, and a further consultation on its detailed regulations "in due course". Three years after Royal Assent, none of that has happened: the sections that create the Levy have never been commenced, the promised second consultation has never appeared, and current Community Infrastructure Levy guidance does not mention the Levy at all. Three documented mistakes: four stars.
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 [1]. Most of it took effect automatically, within two months, the way primary legislation normally does. Part 4, the part that was meant to replace the entire system of developer contributions to new housing and infrastructure in England, did not. Section 255(4) says simply that "Parts 4 and 5 come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by regulations appoint" [2], no deadline, no default date, no fallback. Three years on, no day has been appointed.
A levy with no start date by design
Section 137 creates the Infrastructure Levy itself, through Schedule 12. Section 138 lets the Homes and Communities Agency act as a charging authority. Section 139 restricts the old Community Infrastructure Levy to Greater London and Wales, clearing the ground for the new Levy to take its place everywhere else in England [3]. All three carry the same commencement note on legislation.gov.uk, checked directly on 19 September 2026: "not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 255(4)" [3], and no later entry recording that the Secretary of State has ever appointed a day.
The contrast sits on the same page. Section 140, which tightens enforcement of the old Community Infrastructure Levy, carries the identical starting note, "not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 255(4)", followed by a second line: "S. 140 in force at 31.1.2024 by S.I. 2024/92, reg. 2(h)" [3] [4]. Ministers found three months to switch on tougher enforcement of the levy that already existed. The sections that create its replacement have had three years, and nothing.
What the department itself promised
The then Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities opened a technical consultation on the Infrastructure Levy on 17 March 2023, before the Act had even passed, closing 9 June 2023 [5]. Its own consultation document set a timetable: "we expect 'test and learn' authorities to introduce charging schedules from late 2024/25, and operating the Levy from 2025/26. National rollout will occur over the course of a decade" [6]. That page closes with a second promise: "a further consultation on the drafting of those regulations will be published in due course" [5].
It is now the autumn after the 2025/26 operating year the department's own document named. No test-and-learn authority is operating the Levy, because the law that creates it has never been switched on. No further consultation on the drafting of the regulations has been published, in due course or otherwise; the March 2023 technical consultation remains the only public document on the Levy's design. The current Community Infrastructure Levy guidance, maintained by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (the department's successor) and last updated 17 June 2026, makes no mention of the Infrastructure Levy that was meant to replace it [7].
The comparison that shows it is a choice
Part 6 of the same Act shows that silence is not simply what happens to a delayed reform. Part 6 creates Environmental Outcomes Reports to replace Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment, and it came into force automatically two months after Royal Assent, on 26 December 2023 [8]. The detailed regulations needed to actually require an Environmental Outcomes Report have not been made either, so in practice that reform has also not started. But the department published a government response and a public roadmap on 13 March 2026, to the same consultation that opened alongside the Levy's, back in March 2023, stating plainly: "we will bring forward Environmental Outcomes Reports by the end of 2027" [9], with three named phases of work between now and then [10]. Whatever a reader thinks of a 2027 deadline for a 2023 Act, it is a deadline, stated in public, with a phased plan attached. The Infrastructure Levy has had none of that since June 2023.
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the evidence actually shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Parliament gave Parts 4 and 5 no fixed start: they "come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by regulations appoint" (s.255(4)) [2] | Checked directly on legislation.gov.uk, 19 September 2026: sections 137-139 still carry no commencement order, three years after Royal Assent [3] | The open-ended commencement power has never been used |
| The 2023 technical consultation promised "test and learn" authorities "operating the Levy from 2025/26" [6] | The 2025/26 year the document named has passed with the underlying law never commenced; no authority is operating the Levy | The document's own timetable has already been missed |
| The same consultation promised "a further consultation on the drafting of those regulations... in due course" [5] | No further consultation has been published; current Community Infrastructure Levy guidance, updated as recently as 17 June 2026, does not mention the Levy [7] | The promised follow-up has not appeared, over three years on |
The mistakes, counted
A flagship power with no deadline attached (1). Section 255(4) hands the Secretary of State an open-ended discretion to start the Infrastructure Levy "on such day" as they choose, with no backstop date and no duty to report on progress, unlike the automatic two-month commencement given to most of the rest of the Act, including the enforcement provisions for the levy it replaces [2] [3]. Nothing in the Act requires anyone to explain a delay, because nothing in the Act sets a date the delay could be measured against.
The department's own 2025/26 timetable has already passed (2). The technical consultation that preceded the Act promised test-and-learn authorities charging and operating the Levy from 2025/26 [6]. That year has now passed. No authority has run the Levy, because the sections that create it have never been switched on.
A promised follow-up consultation that has never appeared (3). The same document promised a further consultation on the draft regulations "in due course" [5]. Over three years later, no such consultation has been published, and the department's current Community Infrastructure Levy guidance, last updated 17 June 2026, does not mention the Infrastructure Levy at all [7].
Credit where due
The Act does not hide any of this. Section 255(4) says plainly, on its face, that Parts 4 and 5 start whenever the Secretary of State decides, so nobody reading the Act was misled into expecting an automatic timetable the way they might reasonably expect for the rest of it. And the comparison with Environmental Outcomes Reports shows the same department is capable of publishing a dated, phased public roadmap for a different reform that has also missed its original timetable, which means the machinery for being transparent about a delay exists and has been used elsewhere in the same Act, in the same year, by the same successor department [9] [10]. Nothing here suggests the Levy has been quietly abandoned rather than deprioritised; a discretionary commencement power is not itself improper, and governments routinely retain them for genuinely complex reforms.
Verdict
Four stars, from three documented mistakes. Parliament passed a headline reform to how England pays for the roads, schools and clinics that new housing needs, and wrote its own start date out of the Act entirely. The department that asked for that discretion then published a specific public timetable anyway, missed it without comment, and let the one document meant to succeed it, the "further consultation... in due course", quietly not happen. The Act itself will not tell a reader any of this: on legislation.gov.uk it simply says "not in force", now as it did in October 2023. Whether the Infrastructure Levy still has a future has to be pieced together from a three-year-old consultation and its absence from everything published since.
Sources
- Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023: introduction (Royal Assent, 26 October 2023, c. 55), legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives
- Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, section 255 (Commencement and transitional provision), legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives
- Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, Part 4 (Infrastructure Levy), legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives
- The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024, legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, made 25 January 2024, in force from 31 January 2024
- Technical consultation on the Infrastructure Levy, GOV.UK, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, published 17 March 2023, closed 9 June 2023
- Technical consultation on the Infrastructure Levy (full consultation document), GOV.UK, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
- Community Infrastructure Levy, GOV.UK, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, updated 17 June 2026
- Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, Part 6 (Environment), legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives
- Environmental Outcomes Reports: Roadmap to reform, GOV.UK, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, published 13 March 2026
- Environmental Outcomes Reports: a new approach to environmental assessment (consultation outcome), GOV.UK, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, published 17 March 2023, updated 13 March 2026