Developer Contributions And Legal Agreements

The Council will expect any necessary off-site infrastructure or affordable housing to be provided by the developer. Planning permission will only be issued once a legal agreement to secure the required provision has been signed.

Legal Agreements - general

Agreements on developer contributions are usually made under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act. However, the Government introduced the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) which partly replaced the use of agreements under Section 106 of the Planning Act. Please see our CIL page for further information.

Early preparation of Legal Agreements

The Council wants to ensure that identifying infrastructure needs and preparation of legal agreements does not unnecessarily delay the issuing of planning permissions. It is important therefore that the 'heads of terms' for an agreement are discussed and agreed with the Council at the pre-application stage. The applicant should at this stage also ensure that all those who will need to be party to the agreement have been identified and agree with the proposed detail.

The applicant's solicitor can then, in conjunction with the Council's Legal Section, ensure the agreement is ready to be signed at the time the planning application itself is determined.

Costs

The Council will expect its legal costs for the completion of an agreement to be met by the applicant. It will also require a monitoring fee to cover the future cost of monitoring the implementation of the agreement.

These fees are set out in the Council's Fees and Charges with changes that came into effect on 1 April 2025. Explanation of the Section 106 monitoring fee can be found in the Section 106 Monitoring Fees note, available to download. 

Model Agreements

Templates for three types of model agreement currently used by the Council are listed below. These can be adjusted to suit the circumstances of each case:

• Section 106 Master - Affordable Housing and Highways Contributions
• Section 106 Master - 50% Affordable Housing - RSL
• Section 106 Master - 100% Affordable Housing - RSL

Information about existing agreements and developer contributions

Regular reports are presented to the Council's Planning Committee on those schemes where contributions have been negotiated and the progress in collecting and spending the monies

Further information

For further general information on the likely need for developer contributions and associated legal agreements please contact the Planning Department.