Chapter Contents
16 Delivering Infrastructure
Delivering Infrastructure
It is critical that North Lincolnshire receives the infrastructure it needs to support the delivery of housing and jobs growth, and to ensure that existing communities can be sustained. It is important that the growth should bring benefits to, and not adversely affect the quality of life of, existing communities. To achieve this it is important to have the correct tools in place to help implement these policies and ensure the successful delivery of the overall vision for this Plan.
There are a number of ways to ensure infrastructure delivery through the planning system. The existing system in North Lincolnshire includes developer obligations secured in Section 106 Agreements, which cover on and off-site requirements including affordable housing, open space provision, transport measures, and education provision. However, this system has not adequately picked up more strategic infrastructure impacts or needs, and can be accused of lacking transparency for developers when providing for standard off-site infrastructure in particular.
Therefore the Council is considering whether it shall adopt a standard charge approach to the delivery of infrastructure alongside Section 106 Agreements, which was brought into force by the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations in April 2010. This would permit the Council to pool developer contributions raised through the levy and spend on infrastructure requirements for both the settlements in which the development forms a part or North Lincolnshire wide, although in turn would limit the use of Section 106 Agreements. A review of the best way forward with securing infrastructure funding is ongoing.
This Plan is supported by an Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) which provides detail of the infrastructure that is essentially necessary to enable growth to occur and delivery issues in relation to key proposals. The IDP also includes a number of infrastructure projects, which although not essential to the delivery of this Plan, are desirable. Their inclusion within the IDP will assist the Council in its attempts to secure funding for these projects. The Council will keep these documents under review to measure progress. It should be noted that the IDP principally identifies high level strategic infrastructure and does not include site specific infrastructure requirements, which will be dealt with through individual planning applications.
The Council will require all developments to meet the on and off-site infrastructure requirements needed to support the development and mitigate the impact of the development on the existing community and environment to make it acceptable in planning terms.
Each development will be expected to meet site related infrastructure needs. Where the provision of new, or the improvement or extension of existing, off- site infrastructure is needed to support a new development or mitigate its impacts, and it is not anticipated that the infrastructure will be provided through CIL, the development will be required to contribute proportionately through a Section 106 Agreement commuted sum, or other mechanism as agreed with the Council.
Section 106 Agreements will apply to all major developments and some minor developments but may be varied according to:
- the scale and nature of the development and its demonstrated viability; and
- whether or not a planning obligation meets all of the statutory reasons (‘tests’) for granting planning permission.
- Where there are site specific viability concerns, development must be accompanied by a Viability Assessment.
Policy ID1p aims to deliver the infrastructure required to support the growth requirements across North Lincolnshire. A number of pressures can be relieved through site specific provision such as open space, children's play areas and the provision of affordable housing. However, there are other infrastructure improvements and requirements that cannot always be accommodated onsite, or that relate to strategic off-site facilities serving the whole settlement or North Lincolnshire wide.
All Planning obligations must be, 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.
It is recognised that some development proposals may be unable to meet all of the relevant policy and planning obligation requirements while remaining economically viable and deliverable, either in whole or in part. In such circumstances the Council will consider requests to reduce the level of planning obligations to a level which ensures that a scheme remains viable. In these instances, preference will be given to the needs and priorities of an area and the wider benefits of development, such as, for example, regeneration and meeting housing need.
The Council will produce a Developer Contributions SPD which will provides greater detail on when planning obligations will be sought, how this will be calculated and give further details on viability.
No Alternatives considered
Monitoring
| Indicator | Target |
|---|---|
| Amount of S106 contributions requested via planning application | No specific target identified. |
| Amount of S106 spent by Type | No specific target identified. |
Do you think the Preferred Policy ID1p: Delivering Infrastructure is the right approach?