Town and Country Planning Act 1990

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The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 was passed to better regulate the way in which large and small scale developments were approved by local authorities in England and Wales.

1 Section 106
- 1.1 Criticisms
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Section 106

Section 106 of the Act (as substituted by the 1991 Act), and in DoE Circular 5/05, produces effects which are often referred to as Planning Gains or Planning Obligations.

It relates to monies paid by developers to Local Planning Authorities in order to offset the costs of the external effects of development. For example, if a developer were to build 100 new houses, there would be effects on local schools, roads etc., which the Local Authority would have to deal with. In that situation there might be a Section 106 agreement as part of the granting of planning permission. The developer might agree to make a contribution towards the provision of new schools.

Section 106 arrangements are currently being reviewed by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

[edit] Criticisms

Section 106 agreements are criticised for:-

Inconsistency
Unfairness
Lack of transparency
Unnecessary length of time to negotiate[1]

Section 106 agreements are one of the main ways in which new affordable housing is provided in the UK. Depending on where in the country a new housing development over a given threshold size, commonly 15 dwellings, is required to provide a pre-determined proportion as affordable housing. This is a cause of friction between developers and local planning authorities because the developer wants to maximise revenue and the councils want to maximise the amount of affordable housing. Unfortunately most councils have poorly worded policies on which they base their demands which causes uncertainty. One of the reasons S106 agreements are unpopular with developers is that, at present, the government makes more money from the sale of affordable rented housing (about £5Bn a year) than it spends (about £3.5Bn a year) and the private sector is left to pick up the slack.