Section 106 and community infrastructure obligations

The council can enter into a Section 106 Agreement with a developer, otherwise known as a planning obligation, when it is necessary to provide infrastructure or community facilities to meet necessary policy requirements and mitigate the impacts of a development.

These can include provision of a range of infrastructure and community facilities such as village halls, green spaces, recreational facilities and sports pitches as well as affordable housing, schools, health centres, libraries, civic amenity, highways and public transport.

What does a Section 106 Agreement require?

The requirements of a Section 106 Agreement will vary according to the size, impact and nature of a proposed development, but they must meet three statutory tests:

• necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms;
• directly related to the development; and
• fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development.

If a developer offers any unrelated contribution as an inducement that does not meet the three legal tests, planning officers will disregard this when determining the application. 

Section 106 obligations will usually specify what the financial contribution will be used for and when it should be provided. It will generally be expected that infrastructure and services will be provided on the site where development takes place.

However, there may be instances where the developer's payment of a sum of money towards the provision or enhancement of infrastructure or community facilities off-site may be appropriate so long as it serves the development and meets planning regulations.

What does a Section 106 Agreement look like?

The below is an example of a Section 106 Agreement. When preparing Section 106 Agreements this is the preferred approach:

• Example of a Section 106 Agreement (PDF Document, 10.42 Mb)

Our role

We have prepared additional guidance to enhance understanding: a protocol sets out the Council’s approach to enhancing the role of the community and its representatives in identifying needs and priorities for infrastructure funding while the technical note sets out more detail on the process for negotiating Section 106 contributions through the planning process.   

• A protocol for community involvement in infrastructure planning and
• A technical note on the Section 106 process

Monitoring

The Council are required to monitor Section 106 agreements to ensure the obligations within it are met.  The monitoring fees were originally set in the Developer Contributions SPD. These fees have been reviewed in February 2022 in line with legislation and the latest government guidance on monitoring fees.

The following monitoring fees will be applied to all Section 106 agreements and Unilateral Undertakings from March 1, 2022:

Payment type	Fee
Section 106 Agreements and Unilateral Undertaking
Group 1 1-10 dwellings or less than 1,000 square metres gross floor space	£292 per obligation + £234 application monitoring fee pre S.106 agreement
Group 2 11-50 dwellings or 1,000 – 3,000 square metres gross floorspace	£350 per obligation + £281 application monitoring fee pre S.106 agreement
Group 3 51 – 150 dwellings or 3,000 – 5,000 square metres gross floorspace	£409 per obligation + £328 application monitoring fee pre S.106 agreement
Group 4 151+ dwellings or over 5,000 square metres gross floorspace	£523 per obligation + £422 application monitoring fee pre S.106 agreement
Group 5 Significant sites of 350 dwellings or more or over 8,000 square metres gross floor space	Bespoke fee set on a case by case basis
Site inspection fee	£195 per visit
Approval of details/documents	£292 per document

Infrastructure Funding Statements

The Council is required to prepare and submit an Infrastructure Funding Statement on an annual basis. This sets out details of funding for projects which have received funding through Section 106 contributions over the course of the year. Detailed information can be found below:

Infrastructure Funding Statements