Crowborough Town Council held £1.31m of unspent developer levy at the end of March, second in Wealden to Hailsham. A new £1.1m district payout adds more.
Crowborough Town Council had £1,306,403 of developer levy in the bank on 31 March 2026, money it has received from new building in the town and not yet spent. That is the second-largest sum held by any town or parish council in Wealden, behind Hailsham.
The figure comes from the town council’s own monitoring report for 2025/26, which Wealden District Council publishes. (Crowborough Town Council, CIL monitoring report 2025/26)
More is on the way. On Friday 30 October Wealden said it would share “just over £1.1 million” between 13 town and parish councils, Crowborough among them. The money covers levy collected from 1 April to 30 September 2026. The council did not say how much each would get. (Wealden District Council, 30 October 2026)
What the levy is
The Community Infrastructure Levy, or CIL, is a charge on new floorspace. Wealden has charged it since 1 April 2016. New homes pay £200 or £150 a square metre, depending on where they are, before yearly indexation. (Wealden, CIL guidance for town and parish councils)
Town and parish councils get a share of what is raised in their area:
- 15%, capped at £100 a year for each council tax dwelling, as standard
- 25%, with no cap, where a neighbourhood plan has been made
The money must go on infrastructure, or on meeting the demands that development puts on an area. Wealden’s examples include play areas, parks, roads, public transport, health facilities, schools and flood defences. (Wealden, Infrastructure Funding Statement and CIL monitoring reports)
How Crowborough compares
Each figure is the total the council reported keeping at the end of 2025/26, from its own monitoring report:
| Council | Received 2025/26 | Spent 2025/26 | Held at 31 March 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hailsham | £1,209,483 | £397,707 | £3,213,499 |
| Crowborough | £267,384 | £163,123 | £1,306,403 |
| Hellingly | £502,985 | £87,739 | £1,044,980 |
| Uckfield | £202,563 | £25,568 | £228,827 |
| Heathfield and Waldron | £63,096 | £17,946 | £89,666 |
| Forest Row | £9,751 | £1,138 | £18,142 |
Hailsham’s lead comes from one payment: £1,133,375 arrived in October 2025 alone, its report shows. (Hailsham Town Council, CIL monitoring report 2025/26) Uckfield held less than a fifth of Crowborough’s total.
What Crowborough has spent it on
In 2025/26 the town council spent £163,123 of levy on three things:
- solar panels: £97,143 so far, towards a £128,668 project, with the rest to come from the levy when invoiced
- a play park: £55,000
- streetlights: £10,980
The year before, it spent £216,446. That included £99,779 replacing the Jarvis Brook playground and £76,422 towards a £230,000 land purchase. (Crowborough Town Council, CIL monitoring report 2024/25)
The 2024/25 report also lists bigger plans with money set aside:
- Wolfe Pavilion upgrade: a project of up to £800,000, with up to £420,000 allocated and the sale of a cottage on the site
- an events site on Eridge Field: up to £120,000 allocated, after a £2,015 survey
- making two council buildings greener: £250,000, with £245,791 still allocated
- street lighting: a further £12,981 allocated
The pavilion at the Wolfe Recreation Ground is the largest. The town council plans new changing rooms, a public café and a function room for hire. Its May update said the earliest realistic start on site was October or November 2026, once planning permission and conditions were cleared. (Crowborough Town Council, Wolfe Pavilion update, May 2026)
Why the balance keeps growing
Receipts have outrun spending in each of the last four years. The money held at each year end, from the town council’s reports:
| Year end | Held |
|---|---|
| 31 March 2023 | £554,175 |
| 31 March 2024 | £1,094,175 |
| 31 March 2025 | £1,202,140 |
| 31 March 2026 | £1,306,403 |
The biggest single jump came in 2023/24, when £693,299 arrived in one year. (Crowborough Town Council, CIL monitoring report 2023/24)
There is a deadline. If a town or parish council does not spend levy within five years of receiving it, Wealden can serve a notice asking for it back. The district would then have to spend it in the same area. Crowborough’s report records no such notices.
What it means for you
- This is money for the town. It can only be spent on infrastructure in Crowborough’s area, and the town council decides how.
- You can see where it goes. Each year’s monitoring report lists every project and what the levy paid towards it. All of them are on Wealden’s CIL reports page.
- Questions go to the town council. It decides how its share is spent, not Wealden. For smaller sums, Crowborough’s six district councillors each hold a £10,000 ward budget for community grants.
Our planning news roundup tracks the housing schemes that pay the levy in the first place.
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