Issue - meetings

To receive an initial report from officers explaining the processes for formulating S106 agreements in applications for major developments especially those set out in the adopted Local Plan and the Housing Infrastructure Fund agreement, together with the amounts of money involved and the deployment of this money.

The Committee had before it, and NOTED, a *report from the Development Management Manager on the process for formulating S106 agreements for major developments.

The officer outlined the contents of the report and highlighted that the process was a legislative one and had to meet the statutory tests for the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations 122.

Consideration was given to:

·         The Governments White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ dated August 2020 had yet to be brought into legislation

·         There were certain criteria which triggered the requirement for the S106 Board to meet which included over £10k in unallocated monies or competing demand over unallocated monies

·         S106 Governance was due to be reviewed and a report will be presented to Cabinet early next year

·         There were opportunities to enhance the process with strategic development opportunities and engagement with statutory consultees

·         Allocated monies stayed within the local area to the development apart from district wide pots such as affordable housing allocations

·         A members expressed a view that scrutiny of S106 agreements before decisions being made should be the remit of the Planning Committee

·         It was not unusual for unallocated S106 monies to remain unspent but the Authority worked proactively with communities to ensure they were utilised to the benefit of those communities and that the Council was pro-active in ensuring monies collated were spent on appropriate infrastructure

·         The Authority had a published Infrastructure Plan

Note: *report previously circulated and attached to the minutes