Annual Infrastructure Funding Statement 2019 to 2020

Government guidance2 explains that 'Planning obligations are legal obligations entered into to mitigate the impacts of a development proposal. Appendix 2 includes a table which sets out the information that is required to be published by the regulations.

This can be via a planning agreement entered into under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 by a person with an interest in the land and the local planning authority; or via a unilateral undertaking entered into by a person with an interest in the land without the local planning authority.

These legal agreements are negotiated during the planning application process and include 'trigger clauses' which specify when actions relating to the delivery of infrastructure should take place. These are usually tied to the progress of the development(s) for example 50 dwellings of a 100 dwelling scheme. Once the threshold set out in the agreement it 'triggers' delivery of infrastructure. Section 106 agreements are negotiated based on the policies and guidance in the Local Plan and Supplementary Planning Documents.

Amongst other things, the Council seeks contributions to mitigate the impact of housing development on education establishments, which is calculated on the basis of a formula. This formula provides a potential discount based on the number of vacant school places in the area, which can be calculated when permission is granted or when payment is required.

Therefore 'Requirement A' in the table in Appendix 2 is based on planning permissions where the financial contribution is agreed prior to determination, the figure used is the sum of money stated in the Section 106 agreement.

However, where a formula has been used in the Section 106 agreement, the potential money secured has not been recorded as this could vary significantly. Figure 1 below provides details of the applications where an education contribution is subject to a formula and includes a maximum education contribution. As the formula allows for a discount to be applied based on the capacity within schools near the development, it is theoretically possible that no contribution will be received for this infrastructure.

Figure 1 - Potential Maximum Education contributions not included in Appendix 2

The regulations require the Council to summarise the level of transactions by a number of terms which are further defined in Government Guidance3 as follows:

• 'secured': the trigger clauses (see paragraph 11) associated with the contribution have been met, meaning the developer is now required to pay all or part of the contribution
• 'received': the developer has paid all or part of the money due to the local planning authority
• 'allocated': the received money has been allocated to a team within the local planning authority, who will spend the money
• 'transferred': the received money has been transferred to an organisation outside the planning authority (for example another local authority or Transport for London), who will spend the money
• 'spent': the received money has been spent on the purpose specified in the section 106 or 278 agreement
• 'returned': the received money (or a portion of it) has been returned to the developer