The government is calling in outside help to set rates for its eagerly-awaited Community Infrastructure Levy.

The levy will be imposed on developers of major schemes to help fund other community projects in the area.

But Policy and Reform Minister Ray Harmer said the government needed to ensure it set the right levy - and was seeking help from the private sector.

Last year, the government said it would introduce proposals for the levy (CIL) by April.

In a statement to Tynwald on Tuesday, Mr Harmer said: ’The aim of CIL is to offset the pressure that new development places on an area by capturing a small portion of the uplift in land value that owners and developers will experience.

’The revenue generated from CIL is then used to fund projects such as school expansions, new medical facilities and transport and other infrastructure.’ However, he said, there was a missing element to the island’s planning system that would be crucial for setting levy rates.

’This missing component is called development and viability testing. This is used in both the day-to-day assessment of planning applications and more importantly the development of local plans and CIL charging schedules.’

Known as plan-wide viability, it is a way of testing the cost and profits associated with a development against strategic plan policies that might generate a cost to the developer, thus helping authorities understand what they can reasonably ask for from developers without jeopardising a development.

’Currently there is no plan-wide viability testing within our planning system, which makes it very difficult for Department of Environment and the Cabinet Office planners to know what they can charge developers,’ said Mr Harmer.

If a CIL proved too high, it risked stalling the development industry but if it was set too low, it would end up costing more to administer than it generated.

’The message I am trying to convey here is that with viability tests comes a greater understanding of how much a developer can afford to pay towards these facilities. Once a strong viability evidence base is in place, government will have an easier time defending requirements for financial contributions,’ he said.

’It is clear that in order to develop CIL successfully we must move to a system which embraces viability testing.

’To this end, specialist development viability assistance is required. Cabinet Office is shortly seeking expressions of interest for island-wide viability testing for such companies.’

Mr Harmer’s predecessor at the Cabinet Office, Chris Thomas (Douglas East), spearheaded the introduction of CIL. He said a commitment was made to have the CIL operational before April 21.

’It now seems misleading,’ he said.

He pointed out work on CIL had been going on for years.

’The sudden emergence of this issue with viability is something that has actually been known about for some time,’ Mr Thomas added.

Mr Harmer said the commitment was to bring proposals by April and the department was working hard to achieve that objective.

’This is an absolute proper step to achieve this objective,’ he said. ’There have been absolutely no misleading statements.’