Agenda item

Members were presented with an updated on the latest Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) for 2022/23, for Blackburn With Darwen Borough Council, that was presented to the Executive Board on the 7th December 2023, for approval to publish the statement.

Under section 106 (s106) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, a Local Planning Authority (LPA) can seek obligations, both physically on-site and contributions for off-site, when it is considered that a development will have negative impacts that cannot be dealt with through conditions in the planning permission.

The obligations may be provided by the developers “in kind” – that is, where the developer builds or provides directly the matters necessary to fulfil the obligation. This might be to build a certain number of affordable homes on-site, for example. Alternatively, planning obligations can be met in the form of financial payments to the Council to provide off-site infrastructure works or contributions towards providing affordable housing elsewhere in the borough. In some cases, it can be a combination of both on-site provision and off-site financial contributions.

The types of infrastructure the Council funds wholly or in part by developer contributions include, but are not limited to:

·       Affordable housing;

·       Education provision, which can be school extensions or new schools;

·       Transport and travel improvements;

·       Highways infrastructure;

·       Health infrastructure;  

·       Community facilities;

·       Open space, public realm and leisure;

·       Flood defence and water management;

·       Biodiversity net gain and environmental improvements;  

·       Carbon reductions, including decentralised energy;

·       Digital infrastructure

Regulations state that a planning obligation may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is:

·       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.

Unless specific circumstances apply, the Council will only request s106 planning obligations for major planning applications, as defined by the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015. 2.6 The Community Infrastructure Levy (Amendment)(England)(No.2) Regulations 2019 requires authorities to prepare an Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) each year to set out their annual income and expenditure relating to section 106 agreements. Blackburn with Darwen’s 2022-23 IFS provides a summary of financial contributions the Council has secured through section 106 agreements from new developments for off-site infrastructure works and affordable housing, in addition to highway works completed as part of new developments through section 278 agreements within the 2022-23 monitoring period. It also includes information on the infrastructure works funded through s106 contributions.

In summary, the report provides:

·       An overview of s106 and s278 agreements;

·       The Council’s internal process relating to s106 contributions;

·       The s106 contributions paid to the Council in the 2022/23 monitoring period

·       S106 contributions and s278 works estimated for future years;

·       Projects delivered in the borough via s106 and s278 agreements in the 2022/23 monitoring period; and

·       Information on monitoring fees and inflation applied to s106 agreements.

Some of the key details from the 2022/23 are summarised below:

·       As at March 2023, a net total of £6,053,479 was available to fund public open space, education, highways and affordable housing projects in the borough;

·       A total of £3,883,516 in s106 monies were received in the 2022/23 period;

·       A total of £2,326,216 s106 monies were spent in the 2022/23 period - £501,113 funding highway works in the borough, £421,610 spent on improving existing or creating new open spaces and £1,394,867 spent on providing additional school places; and

·       A total of £8,626 was collected in monitoring fees in 2022/23. Monitoring fees are added to s106 agreements to cover the cost of the monitoring and reporting on delivery of the agreements.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.