Agenda item

Cllr Judy Roberts, Cabinet member for Infrastructure and Development Strategy, and Rachel Wileman, Director of Planning, Environment and Climate Change, have been invited to present a report on the Council’s Infrastructure Funding Statement and Section 106 Update.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and raise any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

Cllr Judy Roberts, Cabinet member for Infrastructure and Development Strategy, had been invited to present a report updating the Committee on the Council’s approach Infrastructure Funding and the spending of section 106 contributions.  The Infrastructure Funding Statement had been submitted to the Committee at its meeting on 06 December 2023 before being submitted to Cabinet.  The large sums of money unspent had also been explored at the Performance Overview & Scrutiny Committee in December and in the latter’s scrutiny of the Cabinet’s proposed budget.  Cllr Roberts was accompanied by Rachel Wileman, Director of Planning, Environment, and Climate Change. It was emphasised that increasing the speed and ease with which moneys were spent was an ongoing process.

The Director of Planning, Environment and Climate Change, commended the Council’s ability to collect money, and emphasised that s106 money was often collected and pooled for larger infrastructure projects. A piece of work was underway to look at the flexibility of s106 moneys and to see what money had been spent, what money was committed to be spent, and what money was not currently earmarked. While it was the Services responsibility to take s106 agreements forward and deliver infrastructure, there was also a collective responsibility across the Council to mobilise the money.

Insights were sought from the Committee as to how greater engage localities and members themselves in the spending of s106 moneys. A resources map had been created to look at potential housing sites linked to their planning permission status and whether money had been allocated to those sites.

The Committee raised the following issues:

·       The frustration on the part of both members and residents that residents were not getting the infrastructure they were owed from s106 moneys. The apparent lack of transparency over where the money was and how it was being spent – or not – compounded these frustrations.

The Committee was assured that work was already underway on this with using technologies to create a dashboard of infrastructure projects that were in the pipeline and where the funding for these projects was. This dashboard would enable members and residents to monitor projects and to see how moneys were being spent.

·       Concerns were raised about the money from s106 being spent correctly on what would benefit the community the most. There were fears that money was being assigned too narrowly and reducing the flexibility of the money, which then failed to benefit the community.

Officers acknowledged that greater partnerships were needed with localities and communities to determine what exactly was needed. The intention was to build a greater narrative with members, who had the knowledge of what was needed. It was hoped that the creation of the dashboard would help to engage members with the potential projects and the status of funding for those projects.

·       The prospect of having a s106 officer per locality was raised a method of ensuring focus within each locality for the spending of these moneys.

The Committee was given a rough breakdown of how s106 moneys were monitored by various services and teams, with no discrete teams working on any dedicated moneys. Assurances were made that significant progress had been made on processes to ensure information about moneys was trackable and accessible for officers. This meant no information about projects and funding would be lost due to staff turnover.

The need for greater partnerships was highlighted here to ensure those impacted by projects were clear who was responsible for that particular project.

·       The viability of including Cabinet members on the Strategic Capital Board (SCB) was raised as a means of increasing political oversight and responsibility for s106 projects.

The purpose of the SCB was explained to the Committee as an officer-led board set up to deliver oversight on existing projects, and to help develop the annual programme of future projects.

·       The benefits of using section 278 (s278), of the Highways Act 1980, to build network infrastructure before housing developments were brought to the Committee’s attention, with previous examples of successes using this method. By using s278 agreements, it could be ensured that roads, cycle paths, and footpaths were ready for use as soon as a housing development was finished. This meant residents could see immediate value for money and improvement.

Using s278 agreements was acknowledged as a workable solution for some projects. It was a method that had been used in the past, but it had not always been practical with developers. However, s278 agreements had been built into the moneys “held/secured” graph of the PowerPoint under ‘other’, along with bonds, totalling roughly £7.5m received in 2022/23.

·       The Committee expressed concerns about the lack of urgency in s106 moneys being spent, and their fears of moneys being lost having not been spent. The Committee hoped to impress upon Cabinet that the issue of s106 contributions continued to arise because of this seeming lack of urgency from the Council.

The Committee was advised that a balance had to be found between spending moneys on infrastructure immediately and holding moneys for other infrastructure projects. Too many roads infrastructure works at once would have a negative effect on the efficiency of roads they intended to help. However, the importance of this issue had not been lost on the officers. The creation of the dashboard was seen as a positive first step, which would alleviate fears of moneys being forgotten, ignored, or lost.

The Committee was advised that the dashboard would be launched within the next few months. Feedback following demonstrations at the following round of locality meetings would be taken on board and the Council was committed to the dashboard launching by the autumn.

The Committee resolved to AGREE recommendations to Cabinet under the following headings:

·       That the Council should ensure that the conditions attached to future s106 contributions are sufficiently flexible to ensure that they can be used to meet the actual needs of residents whilst ensuring that flexibility does not enable them to be spent in differing localities.

·       That the Cabinet should accept and acknowledge the frustrations and dismay of members and residents at the sheer scale of the funding received and yet to be spent and should commit to that money being used for the infrastructure projects for which it has been provided as speedily as practicable.

·       That the Council should explore whether it would be better to enter s278 agreements which could ensure that physical infrastructure is provided by developers at the early stages of development rather than relying on s106 contributions being earmarked for such infrastructure at a later date.

·       That the Council should ensure that information makes clear where unspent moneys have already been earmarked for future expenditure.

·       That the Council should ensure that local members are informed about, involved in, and engaged with regarding any and all new developments from the beginning of proposals being discussed.

·       That the Council should explore whether it would be appropriate for Cabinet members to sit on the Strategic Capital Board to ensure democratic responsibility.

·       That the Council should, when its dashboard goes live, ensure that contact details for appropriate officers are attached to each infrastructure project.

·       That the Council should avoid silo working and consider whether each Locality should have a s106 officer attached to it.