Labour-run Ealing Council has approved the introduction of a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), a charge on new developments intended to help fund local infrastructure, with implementation planned for March 2026. The decision was taken at the council’s December 2025 meeting (16 December 2025), one of the last before the May 2026 local elections.
The Liberal Democrat opposition said Ealing was the last London borough to adopt the levy, 15 years after it was introduced nationally in 2010. The party argued that the delay meant developers paid less in Ealing than in other parts of the capital during a period of extensive housebuilding.
Lib Dems said the council had missed out on about £90m in potential receipts, which they argued could have supported services including children’s and adult social care, helped limit council tax increases, or funded additional housing. Ealing Council rejected the numbers, saying it had secured more than £110m through Section 106 agreements over the same period.
Councillor Jon Ball, the Lib Dems spokesperson on housing and development, said: “For a decade and a half, developers in Ealing have paid less than they would have paid anywhere else in London.” He added that the council had missed out on “around £6 million a year” and said residents “are entitled to know its cost”.
But Ealing Council has previously rebuffed the allegations, calling the £90m figure “over-simplistic”, based on a flawed understanding of how developer contributions work and lacking transparency over how the Lib Dems arrived at the total.
Speaking to EALING.NEWS in August 2025, an Ealing Council spokesperson said: “Instead of using the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), we have used another method called Section 106 agreements to secure over £110 million in financial contributions and thousands of affordable homes over the past 15 years, funding vital infrastructure projects that support new developments, in line with what CIL would have allowed.”