Report of Strategic Director, Growth and Development

The purpose of the report is to update the Committee on the Council’s Section 106 (s106) activity for the municipal years 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 (to date), together with the appendices it provides an update on the management and administration of planning obligations and sets out the progress on unspent funds.

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director, Growth and Development, that provided an update on the Council’s Section 106 (s106) activity for the municipal years 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 (to date). The report further provided an update on the management and administration of planning obligations and set out the progress on unspent funds.

Key points and themes in the report included:

•           Information following Internal Audit’s review of the new S106 governance arrangements;

•           An indication of affordable housing being provided from S106 contributions;

•           How Developers were encouraged to mitigate any harm from their developments;

•           Best practice and comparison of S106 arrangements with other GM local authorities; and

•           The S106 triggers for planning applications within the Deansgate Ward.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

•           Could and example be given of an occasion where the appropriate trigger has been met to facilitate the reconciliation process;

•           Further clarity was need on how officers saw the role and input from Elected Members for the allocation of S106 spend within their ward;

•           It would be helpful to have examples of other local planning authorities of their approach to allocation of S106 spend;

•           Could S106 spend allocated to one ward be spent in another ward;

•           What was the S106 money allocated to affordable housing being spent on; and

•           It was important to note that not all S106 agreements were financial and some did relate to improvements made to areas within respective wards.

The Director of Planning, Building Control and Licensing advised that there had not yet been an occasion where the appropriate trigger had been met to facilitate the reconciliation process so was not able to provide an example.  In terms of the input of Elected Members, there was certain points in the process, especially around pre-application stage where applicants were encouraged to engage with Elected Members to discuss requirements for mitigations before the application was formally submitted; once submitted applications were on a weekly list and there was also an opportunity to comment when an application is presented to the Planning and Highways Committee.  She added that in addition, when S106 money was received, officers should engage with relevant ward members and agreed to develop this process in order to be consistent across the city.  It was reported that there was a meeting planned in early 2022 with other core cities around how S106 monies were being secured and negotiated.

The Executive Member for Environment acknowledged the frustration on the lack of consistency in the engagement with Elected members on the allocation on S106 spend and agreed to pick this up with officers outside of the meeting and an update would be provided to all Members.

It was clarified that S106 money allocated to one ward could not always be spent in another ward as there was a need for a geographical link to the application in question (with the exception of a affordable housing contribution) and had to be spent within the terms of the original legal agreement

The Executive Member for Housing and Employment advised that the Council’s Housing Affordability Fund did take money from S106 agreements and there was a governance process to ensure this was best spent across the city to deliver as much social rent and affordable housing as possible.  This would include working in partnership with Registered Providers.

Decision

The Committee notes the report.