A Lewisham Council proposal could give local assemblies the power to decide how to spend the £9.3m it has accumulated from a levy on developments.

The community infrastructure levy (CIL) is a cost local authorities can choose to charge on new developments, which must be spent on local infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads, open space and leisure facilities.

Lewisham Council has been accumulating the levy since it was set in 2015, and has not formally decided on how to spend the money.

But a proposal outlines how local assemblies could be used to identify local priorities in communities for projects over one, two and four years.

A quarter of the money should be set aside for the neighbourhood part of the levy, according to the report.

This means it can be used for a wider range of issues other than infrastructure as long as they are concerned with addressing the demands that development places on an area.

This comes as Lewisham Council reviews the charges it makes to developers to build in the borough.

Proposals to double the top rate charged could increase funding for key infrastructure from £39 million to £68 million over the next five years.

This is because land values in the borough have increased significantly.

The council built up £4.9m of CIL in 2016/17, £1.4m in 2015/16 and

£3.4m in 2017/18, according to a report.

Evelyn ward has the largest pool of CIL funding, with £573,080 accumulated.

This is followed by New Cross which has £271,240 of funding accumulated.

The new charging schedule could be adopted by the next year, with Mayor Damien Egan previously saying this money could go towards improving green spaces through a ring-fenced green space fund.

The proposals outlining how to allocate CIL spending is yet to be approved by the full council.