By Richard Johnstone | 23 February 2014
Planning minister Brandon Lewis has raised the prospect of bringing in new laws to require councils to use standard processes for reaching section 106 agreements, including setting time limits for deals to be reached.
Lewis today announced new guidance for the operation of the planning gain regime, under which developers provide infrastructure in developments, as well as a proportion of affordable homes, in agreements with councils. However, he warned that the next government could legislate to force councils to speed up the deals if these changes did not do so.
Currently, negotiations over these planning agreements can hold up construction of new homes if they are not completed in the 8-13 week target for processing planning applications.
The Department for Communities and Local Government said there was now a ‘clear expectation’ that section 106 negotiations should be completed within this timeframe. It recommended that negotiations commence at the start of the planning application process, rather than towards the end, and that a dispute resolution process be in place for when negotiations stall.
The government will also promote the use of standardised documents to avoid agreements needing to be drafted from scratch.
Setting out the proposals for consultation, Lewis said they were intended to stop planning applications ‘dragging out’ for months.
If these new standards did not quicken the planning process, legislation would be considered in the next Parliament to ‘give new measures teeth’, he added.
‘Section 106 planning agreements can bring great benefits to local communities but too often they drag out planning applications for months,’ said Lewis.
‘That’s why today I’m proposing measures that will speed up the process, get planning permissions granted quicker and workers on site earlier, all the while keeping the community benefits that these agreements can bring.’
