To receive an update from the Planning Manager.
Minutes:
The Planning Manager gave a slide presentation which updated Members on the S106 Monitoring process within the planning service.
The information on the slides included:
The Monitoring fees agreed by Community & Resources Committee in January 2023.
Legislation allows for fees to be sought from developers to cover the costs of monitoring and implementing S106 obligations. In order to have a more manageable approach to this, development is grouped into five categories in terms of scale of development with a set fee applying to each of those developments.
The following fees relate specifically to biodiversity net gain monitoring fees.
Compulsory net gain fees became mandatory earlier this year and have been agreed for the purposes of entering into Legal Agreements for onsite provision, creation of habitat banks and also offsite land parcel.
· Small site (0 – 10 ha) - £4,131.08
· Medium site (11 – 20 ha) - £5,076.97
· Large site (21 ha+) - £6,022.86
S106 Planning monitoring fees received to date - just over £53k since last January. This is across a range of scales of development and is additional income to cover the cost of Officer time which had not previously been secured.
How the monies were spent –
Summer 2023 there was a temporary post – S106 monitoring data entry and system set up = £4,229.
Income data is set up on an annual basis = £1,500.
Seeking further 2024 Summer temporary post = £6,920.53 (proportion from monitoring fees).
Monies cover varying period of time and inputs by key officers:
· Planning Manager
· S106 Monitoring Officer
· Community Engagement Officer
· Housing Delivery Lead
· Planning Policy Officers
Process involved –
Once an Agreement is sent through with a legal instruction, the Planning Support Team will upload that onto the system against the Planning Application. Once the application is approved, all of the clauses within the S106 are input into the system with trigger points factored in for monitoring and this allows developers to be invoiced at the right stage. On larger developments it could be a period of time before a certain trigger is met, it can be years, and there is an indexation built in so that the sum in the original agreement is indexed up to the current point in time.
An example of the system in place for monitoring an application was shown on the slide and comprehensive details of the process was given.
All Legal Agreements require monies to be paid by the developer at a certain point, but usually there is a ten year period where if not spent by the Authority and the wider community within that period, they have to be returned. There is a monitor trigger point to ensure the pay back dates are monitored.
An audit of the S106 Monitoring System was carried out, on most areas the system received substantial assurances which is real credit to the team that set up the system. Received positive feed back from the Internal Audit process.
Details were given of the S106 monies invoiced received/recovered since the new monitoring system was introduced. Ward Members are notified on receipt of monies. A S106 spreadsheet is updated and circulated monthly via the Members Bulletin and is also available to view on the website. Members were advised that an item listed on the spreadsheet should have been removed as the monies had been received, the item had been committed and the Developer had been made aware.
Focus for improvement -
· Earlier proactive involvement with Ward Members, Parish Councils and Community Engagement Officer
· Further develop monitoring functions on Uniform, e.g. commencement and occupation triggers – potential temporary summer resource to carry out project
· Encourage greater and timelier applications for grant monies
· Develop a more strategic approach to community development
A brief discussion followed.