Report of the Strategic Director, Growth and Development.

This report provides an update on the Council’s Section 106 (s106) activity for 2021/22 and to date and follows the report which was presented to Members at the meeting on 7 December 2021.

The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director Growth and Development, which provided an update on the Council’s Section 106 (s106) activity for 2021/22 and to date.

Key themes in the report included:

·         Planning application numbers having remained relatively stable over the years but there had been a slight downturn during 2021/22. It remained too early to predict activity for the current financial year;

·         16 S106 agreements were signed during the 2021/22 financial year and a further 7 agreements had been signed to date for the 2022/23 financial year;

·         A higher proportion of contributions related to affordable housing and other key areas include leisure and environmental improvements;

·         A schedule of completed agreements for 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 including values and number of units where applicable;

·         A working group had been established to ensure that money received is available for spend, that there are no unnecessary delays in the spending of financial contributions and that project managers are in place to oversee individual projects; and

·         The balance of funds in the S106 capital accounts and how this money is split and examples of spend, including affordable housing, highway-related works and tree-planting.

Some of the key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussions included:

·         Figures indicated a reduction in the number of major applications, which would impact the amount of S106 contributions received;

·         If using the Section 278 process was more sufficient in generating funding for highways-related works than S106;

·         Where Members involvement would be on the end-to-end process map for planning applications;

·         An update on benchmarking with other Local Planning Authorities was requested;

·         Whether S106 monies could be placed into the Council’s wholly-owned housing delivery vehicle;

·         The possibility of members observing the officer working group which ensures money received is available for spend;

·         Request for a record of how many and where trees had been planted;

·         What was meant by ‘land value’ and ‘market forces’; and

·         Expressed thanks for the ward-by-ward breakdown of applications.

The Section Planning Manager explained that increased construction costs had resulted in a reduction in major applications being received but provided assurances that officers would continue to negotiate section 106 contracts where appropriate.

The Section Planning Manager also explained that off-site highways works were often agreed through a condition and relevant agreement and this helps to embed issues through planning permission.

It was explained that members would be involved in discussions regarding applications as soon as they are registered with the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and that confidentiality between the LPA and developers restricted these conversations from taking place before applications were registered. It was acknowledged, however, that some developers hold pre-application consultations.

The Section Planning Manager acknowledged that difficulties in making contact with other Core Cities to undertake benchmarking had led to a delay but informed members that a meeting had been scheduled for late September.

It was also explained that information on the number of trees planted was difficult to quantify for every approved application. The Section Planning Manager advised that this could be undertaken on individual ward levels.

In response to members’ requests, the Section Planning Manager agreed to look into whether S106 monies could be used to fund the Council’s wholly-owned housing delivery vehicle and how members could be involved in the officer working group. Definitions of the terms ‘land values’ and ‘market forces’ would also be provided outside of the meeting.

The Executive Member for Housing and Development welcomed the committee’s comments and reiterated the importance of engaging with members on planning applications.

Decision:

That

1.    the Committee notes the report;

2.    the Committee requests that a further update report is provided to the committee in 12 months; and

3.    the Committee requests future reports reference the extent to which Section 278 monies can be utilised.