Developer contributions

When developments take place, they frequently bring with them impacts on the local physical and social infrastructure and services. 

To mitigate the impact of housing development (and in some instances commercial development) on infrastructure, the County Council seeks to ensure that developers contribute towards the cost of providing appropriate infrastructure and services to support their development.

Developer contributions will generally be provided through a planning obligation, secured through the means of a legal deed called a Section 106 Agreement (s106). 

Planning obligations are legal obligations entered into to mitigate any adverse impacts of development and to make a development proposal acceptable in planning terms. 

Most planning obligations are provided by means of a financial payment. 

However, physical contributions, where the developer directly provides the infrastructure necessary to fulfil the obligation may also be secured via a s106 or in some cases, conditions can be attached to a planning consent via section 278 and section 38:

• Section 38 Agreement application
• Section 278 Agreement application

Developer contributions may also be provided through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), where this is charged by the District / Borough Council.

Section 106

Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows a local planning authority to enter into a legally binding agreement or planning obligation with a landowner as part of the granting of planning permission.

Worcestershire County Council utilise Section 106 to fund infrastructure requirements arising from development across Worcestershire.

Section 106 monitoring fees 

As part of collecting and spending Section 106 funding the County Council also collects a Section 106 monitoring fee which allows us to fund officers for administering the Section 106 contributions from signing of the agreement until spend.

Infrastructure funding statement

The Infrastructure Funding Statement is produced on annual basis as a statutory requirement detailing the County Councils allocation, collection and spend of developer contributions received from Section 106.

School planning obligations

For school places generated by development it is expected the appropriate house builder funds additional school places.  For more information visit school planning obligations.

Infrastructure delivery plans

The County Council provides detail on the infrastructure required in each of the district councils through Infrastructure delivery plans.