The Department for Communities and Local Government has launched a consultation on proposals for speeding up the process of negotiating and completing section 106 agreements.
Section 106 contributions, also known as ‘planning obligations’, stem from agreements made between a local planning authority and a developer to address concerns about the costs of providing new infrastructure or affordable housing levels. Under the agreement, the developer makes affordable housing or financial contributions towards local facilities and infrastructure in order to secure planning permission.
In its 2014 Autumn Statement, the Government committed itself to speeding up the planning application process. The newly-published consultation paper seeks comments on its proposals to encourage a faster completion of section 106 agreements, which can lead to delays in the issuing of planning decision notices by local authorities, and for the possible introduction of a specific dispute resolution mechanism where parties cannot agree “on the scale and scope of mitigation necessary” under a section 106 agreement, or where the negotiations breach statutory or agreed timescales.
The proposals include setting time limits so that section 106 agreements are negotiated alongside the planning decision-taking process. Negotiations should be concluded within the statutory timeframes of eight weeks, or 13 weeks for major development, or a longer period agreed in writing between the applicant and local planning authority. It also proposes that parties should start discussions at the beginning of the planning application process and use standardised clauses to minimise the need to draft agreements from scratch for every application.
The consultation, amongst other things, seeks feedback on the following:
1. Whether a dispute resolution mechanism should be available where section 106 negotiations breach statutory or agreed timescales.
2. Whether an automatic or deemed section 106 agreement after set timescales would be workable in practice.
3. Which bodies or appointed persons should provide the dispute resolution service.
4. Whether section 106 dispute resolution should be available for all types of planning application.
5. Whether any dispute mechanism should include the determination of the related planning application.
The consultation paper also seeks views whether requiring affordable housing contributions from developers of dedicated student accommodation acted as a barrier to such development.
The consultation applies to England only and responses must be submitted by 19 March 2015.