Notes of Question and Answer Session at Public Planning Meeting

on 17th March 2010 at Bugbrooke Community Centre

Full notes of the meeting have not been taken, because the slides have been made available by the speakers. These can be accessed on the Bugbrooke Link website, or hard copies can be made available at a small cost to cover copying charges, on application to the parish clerk.

  1. Please explain what is meant by “Section 106 obligations” and the changes which are to be made to the way in which developers contribute towards infrastructure and other matters when they start a new development

Most of the things which have to be done (or not done) during a new development are contained in the planning permission document, and are called “conditions”. Some things cannot be covered by conditions for various legal reasons. They are mainly to do with the payment of money and the future use of the land or parts of it. For instance, the planning authority might want to secure contributions towards the provision of education facilities or open space, and will usually want to ensure that some land is made available for affordable housing. These obligations will be formalised in a legal document made under a statutory provision contained in Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This makes them binding on all future owners of the land and they can only be varied by agreement with the district council. They are enforceable through the Court (for example, if a developer fails to make a payment), and while there is obviously a negotiation process to resolve any such problems – which are unusual – South Northants Council can and does enforce through the Court if necessary.

At present, developers are able to make quite wide-ranging contributions which can benefit the wider community. New rules which are about to be brought in (to introduce a new ‘Community Infrastructure Levy’ (“ CIL”)) will seek to ensure that contributions have to directly relate to development which the Section 106 agreement relates to. This means that there might be less opportunity to negotiate wider benefits to other parts of the community.

The speakers encouraged Bugbrooke Parish Council to put together a “shopping list” of things which the village would benefit from, so that this could be made known when landowners apply for planning permission to develop their land. The parish council intends to do this over the next few weeks.

2.I have heard various references to a “roof tax” imposed on developers. How much is this?

Some planning authorities (such as Milton Keynes Council or West Northamptonshire Development Corporation) impose a financial charge on new developments, based on a fixed sum of cash per dwelling. This is another way of developer securing contributions under a Section 106 agreement. The amount varies according to the amount of value which can be extracted from the development site. If building costs are high and selling prices are low, then there will not be much “residual value” which can be used to pay the roof tax. In West Northamptonshire the ideal figure would be £35,000 per house, but this has not been achieved. The average is £20,000 per house and even this figure is under threat, given the current economic situation.

  1. What does “legally binding” mean in the context of planning agreements and payment of contributions and carrying out of works?

A planning agreement made under Section 106 is a legally binding document. This means that obligations made under it can be enforced by the district or other council in whose favour they have been made. South Northants Council’s intention is always to enforce the obligations unless good reason is given as to why this should not be done, in which case the Council will seek to negotiate an acceptable alternative solution. For instance, in the present economic climate longer timescales for payments might well be agreed if developments are not proceeding as quickly as they had been intended.

4.Bugbrooke has been allocated 111 new houses under the district council’s Interim Rural Housing Planning Policy. We have heard that this figure might be higher or lower, depending on how many houses are built elsewhere in the district. This means that, theoretically, Bugbrooke could end up with all the shortfall if no houses are built elsewhere! Why can this figure not be final? Why can the new developments just be in small pockets of land?
South Northants district has a shortfall of houses in its five year land bank. All the villages with local services have to contribute land to remove this shortfall. This means that land outside the “village envelope” might now be granted planning consent in order to reduce the shortfall. The Interim Rural Housing Policy indicates a number of houses for each village for which planning permission is likely to be given (in principle, in policy terms, but of course subject to the suitability of the individual site). The number across the district adds up to a total sufficient to meet the housing land supply shortfall. The number suggested for any one village is neither a ‘ceiling’ nor a ‘target’.

In practice, some villages will be able to provide more houses than they have been allocated, owing to the available land being suitable for more (perhaps the layout of the site was more suitable for a slightly larger development, meaning better use of land). Some will provide fewer houses if land does not become available. So the result is a ‘swings and roundabouts’ way of arriving at the total required for the district. The number of dwellings is capped at the district level.

In theory, all the dwellings could be provided in one huge development in one location, but in practice this will not happen. The reality is that applications will be submitted and approved for other villages – and indeed, the figures in the presentation of applications and permissions already granted show that this is exactly what is likely to happen. So to suggest that Bugbrooke will need to accept all the district’s housing shortfall is simply an unnecessary fear. In any event, large scale developments which exceed the village’s allocation are very unlikely to get permission from the district council, and it would seem that this will be supported by an inspector on appeal (judging by the appeals which the Council has been winning recently).

All developments will still have to satisfy the usual highways and infrastructure requirements and all other planning requirements in order to gain consent. However, until we have a new Local Development Framework in place, the location of applications will reflect landowner/developer aspirations, so the council cannot dictate that the new developments are located in small pockets of land, however desirable that may be in certain villages.

5.With regard to the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA), this has earmarked various sites in Bugbrooke as having potential for development. How long will these sites be retained for?
These sites have not been earmarked for development. This document is simply a list of sites which might be suitable for development at some point if all planning and other relevant criteria were satisfied. While many have been identified from their planning history as having past expressions of interest from landowners and developers in building on them, many others have come forward from more recent expressions of interest. The SHLAA is therefore a document intended to gather technical evidence about the availability and suitability of sites for development. It is not a statement of future planning policy that earmarks sites for development. The SHLAA evidence will be used to inform the next stages of preparing the Local Development Framework, which is the document that will identify future sites for development. In practice, therefore, many of the sites in the SHLAA might be removed from the list if evidence is produced that they are not suitable for development; and many of those that are suitable in technical terms will in practice not be allocated in future development. If they are included in the next Local Development Plan, this will remain current until 2026.

6.After the Interim Rural Housing Planning Policy expires, when the housing shortfall has been removed, what happens then? Northamptonshire is a growth area, so the implication is that there will be many more houses built here.
The Policy is ‘interim’ until one of two things happens – either the shortfall in housing land supply is solved or the new Local Development Framework is agreed and in place as an up-to-date planning policy.

If the shortfall is alleviated first, the intention is that Council will revert to the previous planning policy based on the village confines, which will revert to their previous limits.

So far as the future Local Development Framework for West Northamptonshire is concerned, between 2001 and 2026, 62,125 houses will be needed. Some of those have already been provided. A key job of the LDF will be to allocate the major sites where that housing growth will be located, which is likely to be around the major settlements. These will include Towcester and Brackley. This approach reflects the Government’s Regional Spatial Strategy document, which states that the bulk of new developments will be around the major settlements. There will be a South Northamptonshire Rural Areas plan, and this will contain details of housing to be provided in the villages.

  1. My children cannot afford to live in Bugbrooke. What is being done about the provision of affordable housing here?

The Council’s planning policy seeks to ensure that 30% to 40% of all new houses in a development above a certain size should be affordable, where the development is to build housing for sale. The question of what is affordable clearly relates to the market value of houses in an area, because we live in a market ‘supply and demand’ economy. The key factors are external to planning decisions, such as the availability of land in the district and the market value of houses, and the relationship of these to average earnings. If land does not become available, then houses will remain expensive.

  1. Do developers comply with the 40% requirement to provide affordable housing?

Yes. The Council is quite tough in its approach on this issue. Of course there are trade-offs that have to be negotiated in dealing with any planning application. Sometimes there may be a need for a part of the developer contribution to be used for other benefits or to meet other needs. But so far as possible that is what we seek to achieve, and we’ve been pretty successful in doing so.

  1. When did the five year planning land bank requirement come into effect? When and how is it updated?

It came into effect about 10 years ago. It is monitored regularly by the district council, but the Government has recently stated that councils will be penalised if they do not keep a five year planning land bank, hence the Interim Rural Housing Planning Policy.

It is calculated with reference to historic planning policy and population in the district, together with demographics, growth patterns development patterns, etc. It is subject to testing on appeal ( that is – if a landowner or developer is unhappy with the refusal of their planning application, they can refer to the land bank requirement if they decide to make an appeal, and this will be taken into account by the inspector).

10.The new developments are likely to have a major impact on local services and infrastructure. What tangible information has been obtained to indicate that the services and infrastructure can accommodate them?
No specific studies have been carried out for any new developments. Extensive consultations were carried out prior to the adoption of the Interim Rural Housing Planning Policy and in connection with the preparation of the Local Development Framework, which is ongoing at the moment. Where the consultees raised concerns, these were addressed and, where necessary, the proposals were amended.

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