Section 106 planning obligations
New development in Tower Hamlets can bring
significant benefits to local communities, including new homes and
jobs. However there are often impacts on the local area as a result
of development, for example more people using local facilities such
as parks, roads and leisure centres.
These impacts can be addressed through
‘planning obligations’, which are commitments, made by the
developer and formalised by a legal agreement under the Planning
Act. The legal agreement is known as a ‘Section 106
agreement’ and forms part of a planning approval. Section 106
agreements are legally binding, and the obligations may be either
in cash or kind, to undertake works, provide affordable housing or
provide additional funding for services.
The Department of Communities and Local
Government (CLG) has prepared
guidance on Section 106 Agreements (pdf 152k) in the form of
Circular 05/05. This highlights that the obligations must:
- relate to the proposed development;
- be fair and reasonable;
- relevant to planning, and;
- be necessary in planning terms.
What can be included in a Section 106
Agreement
Planning obligations help to ensure that new
development is sustainable and can assist in meeting the objectives
of the LBTH Community Plan, LBTH
Core Strategy (part of the LBTH
Local Development Framework) and other
relevant local, regional and national policies. Section 106
obligations can include a requirement for:
- Affordable housing,
- Providing educational facilities and additional school
places,
- Providing health facilities,
- Designing out crime (for example street lighting,
CCTV),
- Infrastructure (for example roads, drains) to be provided,
- Land to be dedicated and equipped as open space or
playgrounds,
- Sums to be paid for the provision of off-site infrastructure or
the long term maintenance of open space,
- Creation of open spaces, public rights of way,
- Travel plans,
- Local employment and training strategies and,
- Measures to encourage sustainability and bio-diversity.
View Section 106 Agreements within the London Borough of Tower
Hamlets.
Every Section 106 agreement is attached to a
specific planning application and site in the borough, and searches
can therefore be carried out by site address or planning
application number. It should be noted that the receipt of Section
106 contributions is contingent on works starting on site and
planning consent therefore being implemented. Sometimes a
development may not proceed and the Section 106 obligations are
then not required to be contributed. Payment of financial
contributions, or compliance with providing in-kind obligations,
will be triggered by a certain phase of the development being
implemented, such as commencement, occupation or completion.
Summary of received financial
contributions
By their nature, all Section 106 contributions
collected by the council have an agreed purpose. For each
development, the Section 106 Agreement will specify how the monies
are to be spent, therefore there is limited, if any, opportunity
for reallocation of funds once received.
Table
1(PDF 27kb) provides a summary of the financial contributions
that have been received by the council up to July 2010. It
identifies the purposes for which these financial contributions
have been collected, the amounts received by the council to date
and the contributions which have been spent up to the end of the
last financial year. The information on monies spent will
be completed and updated at the end of each financial
year, while information on monies received will be updated
quarterly. Also provided within Table 1 is a further
description of these purposes and how they can be utilised for more
specific projects.
It should be noted that the London Borough of
Tower Hamlets (LBTH) currently holds no unallocated Section 106
monies, that is, no Section 106 agreement resources with
unrestricted availability. Each amount identified in Table 1 will
be applied to projects fixed by the original Section 106 Agreement,
in accordance with the specific identified purpose.
Section 106 Project Factsheet
Section 106 funded projects are being
delivered all the time in Tower Hamlets. Click on the links below
to view our S106 Project Factsheets, showing a selection of schemes
completed or currently being delivered through planning obligations
in the Borough. A new edition will be available every six months,
with the next one to be published around October
2010.
This webpage and any of the financial
information included will be updated on a quarterly basis.
Contact us:
Mulberry Place (AH)
PO Box 55739
5 Clove Crescent
London E14 1BY
Tel: 020 7364 5327
Email: majorprojects@towerhamlets.gov.uk