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What is a Section 106 Planning
Obligation?
Planning obligations are
created under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act
1990. They are therefore known as 'Section 106
obligations'. They are legally binding obligations
(agreements) that are attached to a piece of land and are
registered as local land charges against that piece of land.
Planning obligations enable a council to secure contributions
towards services, infrastructure and amenities in order to support
and facilitate a proposed development.
The requirements of a Section 106 obligation will vary according
to the size, impact and nature of the proposed
development. At Malvern Hills District Council, our planning
officers rely on the adopted Malvern Hills District Local
Plan 2006 as well as Supplementary Planning Documents
(SPDs) to inform applicants of the requirements for their
particular development proposals.
What is the purpose of these
obligations?
Planning legislation
includes the essential principle that development should pay for
the social and physical infrastructure to support and facilitate a
development. It would not be fair or
reasonable to expect a developer to contribute towards existing
service deficiencies such as a shortage of school places
or existing deficiencies in public open space sport and
recreation facilities, or repairs to the highway. However, it
would be fair and reasonable to expect them to contribute to
limiting the impact of their own development on the local area.
How is the type and level of contribution
decided?
The key principles for
establishing Section 106 obligations are defined and structured in
the Circular 05/05, and are also referred to in a number of
Planning Policy Guidance notes (PPGs) dealing with specific policy
management issues. For example, PPG13 - Transport, gives
detailed guidance on contributions for measures to assist public
transport. Circular 05/05 defines the parameters for the
negotiation process and establishes that contributions must be:
- Relevant to planning;
- Necessary;
- Directly related to the proposed development;
- Fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind;
- Reasonable in all other respects.
Planning officers will not ask for any contribution unless it
relates 'fairly' to the development. If a developer
offers any unrelated contribution as an inducement, planning
officers will disregard this when determining the
application. For example, it may not be proper for a local
planning authority to seek contributions towards the development of
a public swimming pool arising from an application for a
supermarket development. However, it may be appropriate to
expect a supermarket developer to contribute towards highway
improvements.
In practice, it is not unreasonable for communities to identify
those areas where there are weaknesses in social and physical
infrastructure to which contributions could be sought from new
development. For example, affordable housing,
public open space, sport and recreation facilities and
local environmental improvements.
How will the contribution be
spent?
Section 106 obligations will
often specifically identify what the financial contribution will be
used for. Working groups, including officers from
all potential 'spending' service units such as Housing, Community
Development and Economic Development, work with the Section 106
Officer to ensure that contributions are correctly allocated
and handled. In some cases, individual S106 financial
contributions will be pooled over a number of years, to provide
major infrastructure or service improvements. In addition, our
Section 106 Officer monitors completed agreements to make sure that
once the development has been started, agreed payments are received
by the District Council on-time and if they are not for any reason,
arrangements are made to collect late payments.
How do you establish priorities for
contributions?
As the Local Planning
Authority, one of our key roles in this process is to
identify and prioritise 'needs' within our District
and to consider these alongside present and
proposed developer contributions. This work identifies
where there might be a lack of play equipment in a residential
area; no community hall where one is needed; or a very limited
amount of affordable housing, for example. The District Council has
commissioned an audit of existing public open space, sport and
recreation facilities across the District to identify where there
were deficiencies, so that future developer contributions could be
targeted into these areas.
As part of this process and by working with partners such as
Parish and Town Councils we aim to build up a Community
Ideas Database. This contains 'needs' or 'wishes'
that have been identified by councillors, parish councils,
residents' associations and other interested groups. Planning
officers will then be able to refer to this list when they are
negotiating Section 106 obligations with developers.
Public Open Space Grant Fund
The aim of
the Public Open Space Grant Fund is to protect and improve the
quality of public open space, sport and recreation provision which
has recreational value.
Application Forms
Who to contact for information and
advice
If you have any questions
about planning obligations please contact the Section 106
Officer, email:- developmentcontrol@malvernhills.gov.uk
If you have any suggestions for the Community Ideas Database or
would like advice about the sort of schemes that may be supported
through S106 obligations please contact the Community
Services Team.
For further information on the relevant
policies, please follow the links below:
Affordable Housing SPG -The purpose of this document is to
provide guidance on the implementation of the Council's affordable
housing policies (from new housing development).
Open Space SPD - Malvern Hills District Council has prepared an
Open Space Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) as part of the
Local Development Framework (LDF) for the District.
Developers Contributions and Obligations - This provides
detailed policy guidance on the nature and level of contributions
(usually either land or financial) required from development
sites.
To view details of successful
projects that have been funded through Section 106
Contributions, please follow the link below:
Section 106
Case Studies
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