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S106 Agreements
Development Control User Panel
s106 agreements
• What are s106 agreements?
• How are they managed?
• The future:Community Infrastructure Levy
What are s106 agreements?
• Established by 1990 Town and Country
Planning Act (as amended) Planning
Obligations are:
• Legal Agreements(or “s106 agreement”)between a
developer and local planning authority or
• Unilateral Undertaking offered by the developer
• A means by which unacceptable
development can be made acceptable in
planning terms
Legal basis and framework
• Government Circular 05/2005, legislation and
case law - must meet relevant tests
• Strong Policy basis - UDP and London Plan
• Specific Guidance - Camden Planning
Guidance
• Type and scale of proposals
• Consultation
• Impact mitigation – other ways?
Circular 05/2005 Tests
Planning obligations must meet all of the
following tests:
•Relevant to Planning
•Necessary to make a proposed development
acceptable in planning terms
•Directly related
•Fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind
and
•Reasonable in all other respects
Examples of the Use of Planning
Obligations
• Prescribing the nature of development
e.g. securing the inclusion of affordable
housing or restricting uses
• Mitigating the impact of development
e.g. community infrastructure, highways
works, managing construction
• Compensating for loss or damage
e.g. restoring or replacing open space or
facility
Key features
• Not a tax – most agreements do not involve
financial contributions
• Negotiated legal agreement between local
authority and landowner/developer
• Based on fundamental principle that
planning permission my not be bought or
sold
• Must be supported by policy
• However perceived by many as opaque,
complex, slow, unfair, etc.
London Plan and UDP Policy
• London Plan priorities(Policy 6A.4)affordable housing and public transport
improvements
• UDP policy (SD2) - “Where existing and
planned provision of infrastructure, facilities
and services is not adequate to meet the
needs generated by a proposal, the Council
will use planning obligations to secure
measures directly related in scale or kind to
the proposal to meet those needs”.
Potential Requirements
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Affordable housing
Transport improvements and initiatives
Education,health and other community facilities
Car free housing
Environmental sustainability and improvements
Public realm and open space
Biodiversity and conservation
Town Centre and regeneration initiatives
Regulation e.g. phasing, construction/servicing
plans, mix of uses
Camden Planning Guidance
(December 2006)
• Emphasises legal and policy basis
• Indicates priorities e.g. affordable housing,
transport initiatives, public realm
• Procedures
• Thresholds and criteria
• Formula
Camden Approach
• Impacts and implications of development are
anticipated and considered early on
• Identified requirements are proportionate, relevant
and justifiable
• Process does not unduly delay the determination of
planning applications
• Appropriate measures identified through
consultation
• Works/projects are scoped and costed accurately
enough to provide confidence in future delivery
• “Pooling” arrangements
• Monitoring and implementation
Some facts and figures
• 515 agreements signed between 2003/04 and
2006/07(128 in 2006/07)
• 316 do not involve a financial contribution
(199 do-mainly highways related works)
• c.40% of all funds held relate to site specific
highways works [15% off site affordable
housing(c.£2.5m) and 15% school
places(c.£2.5m)]
• Receipts variable: £3.24m in 2002/03, £0.8m
in 2003/04, £3.01m in 2006/07
• Expenditure variable: £0.43m, £1.4m and
£1.5m respectively
Consultation and Information
• Policy - consultations on UDP/Local
Development Framework and supplementary
guidance
• Schemes – DC Forum, developers
consultation events, planning applications,
input from other services and agencies,
Development Control Committee reports,
statutory register, S106 officer
• Projects – depends on how, where and
when….
S106 agreements : the future
• Number of previous Government proposals :
common objectives - speed, reducing
uncertainty , transparency, “capturing
value”, meeting infrastructure needs
• Planning Bill(November 2007) – introduces
Community Infrastructure Levy – only
enabling powers at this stage
• Regulations will empower but not require
authorities to introduce CIL
• DCLG publication (January 2008)
Community Infrastructure Levy 1
• Underpinned by infrastructure needs generated by
new development and “capturing value”(without
stifling development)
• A standard charge (eg £/dwelling or £/sqm)
• Not just transport and strategic infrastructure but
local – schools, parks, health centres
• Address cumulative impact of small and medium
sized schemes (current s106 contributions tend to
be limited to the most major of schemes)
• S106 agreements scaled back
Community Infrastructure Levy 2
• How will it be set?
• Councils need to identify what infrastructure is
needed and how much it will cost
• Through plan-making process-need to have robust
methodology- which will be tested
• Take viability into account
• Take other funding sources into account
• A published charging schedule – with flexibility to
respond to changing market conditions
• Levied on most types of development – a few
exemptions (e.g. householder type) and de minimis
threshold
Community Infrastructure Levy 3
• What will it be for?
• May be applied retrospectively…but not a
replacement for general Council funding, nor to
remedy pre-existing deficiencies
• For new or improved/refurbished infrastructure
(“infrastructure” needs to be defined)
• Clear monitoring and accountability
• Can be assigned to sub-regional or regional
infrastructure
• S106 agreements limited to affordable housing, nonfinancial/technical matters and mitigating site
specific impacts
Community Infrastructure Levy 4
• Next Stages
• Government setting up working groups (developers ,
local authorities)
• Draft Regulations – To be formally consulted on in
Autumn 2008
• Regulations finalised –Spring 2009 ( need to be
approved by House of Commons)