Agenda item

Cabinet received a report which sought its approval for the proposed changes to the way developer contributions (S106 Agreements) would be negotiated in the future.

The proposed changes responded to statutory and regulatory changes by Government and were also set in the context of the anticipated adoption of the Peterborough Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). 

Councillor Hiller introduced the report and provided an overview of the CIL draft charging schedule stating that it had been approved for public consultation by Full Council.  It was further highlighted that although CIL would be the main mechanism for funding future infrastructure, S106 planning obligations would still be used to fund any necessary on site related infrastructure i.e. open space provision. The provision of affordable housing was also outside of the CIL process and could therefore only be delivered via the use of S106 agreements.

The draft Developer Contributions Supplementary Planning Document had therefore been produced in order to sit alongside the CIL and to set out the relationship between planning conditions, S106 agreements and CIL in order to make it clear what infrastructure would be funded by those different mechanisms. The SPD document did not set new policy, but provided a framework for the implementation of existing policies.

An overview of the main aspects of the CIL was provided and it was advised that should the SPD document be approved, it would be subject to a four week consultation alongside the CIL document. It was assumed that the SPD would be adopted at the same time as the CIL with a new developer contributions system being in place from April 2015.

Cabinet considered the report and RESOLVED to:

Approve the Peterborough Draft Developer Contributions Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for the purposes of public consultation to take place in August and September 2014.

          REASONS FOR THE DECISION

Government had introduced changes to the way developer contributions could be collected and spent. From April 2015, the use of existing methodology for collecting and pooling developer contributions (POIS) would become unlawful and so unless a CIL was adopted, the collection and use of developer contributions would be severely limited from that date.

To support CIL and to secure the provision of on-site infrastructure there was a need for a Developer Contributions SPD to clearly set out the difference between CIL and S106 agreements.

Cabinet was recommended to approve the Developer Contribution SPD for public consultation in August and September 2014.

          ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED

From April 2015 the Council would not be able to secure developer contributions through the POIS system and therefore the Council was proposing to introduce CIL. However, CIL did not cover affordable housing and would not be used to secure site specific infrastructure, particularly on strategic sites. Therefore there was the need for an additional document which supplemented the CIL process and set out how affordable housing contributions and other on-site infrastructure would be secured.

Without a Developer Contributions SPD in place to set out clearly how this process would work, there could be inconsistences in the approach used and the Council could miss out on securing developer contributions that were critical to accommodate growth targets. It could also mean that a developer would not be aware upfront of the potential costs associated with onsite infrastructure, which could affect the viability of a scheme and either result in lower contributions to fund important infrastructure, such as affordable housing, or stop development coming forward.

Therefore the option of not preparing a Developer Contributions SPD was rejected.