Section 106 Agreements

Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows a Local Planning Authority (LPA) to enter into a legally-binding agreement or planning obligation with a landowner in association with the granting of planning permission. The obligation is termed a Section 106 Agreement. These agreements are a way of delivering or addressing matters that are necessary to make a development acceptable in planning terms.

The Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) circular of May 2005 elaborated further and outlined 5 tests that must be met by LPA's when seeking Planning Obligations. A Planning obligation must be:

(i) Relevant to planning
(ii) Necessary to make the proposed development acceptable in planning terms
(iii) Directly related to the proposed development
(iv) Fairly and reasonably related to the proposed development
(v) Reasonable in all other aspects

The community infrastructure levy regulations 6th April 2010 states that a planning obligation may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is:

(i) Necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms;
(ii) Directly related to the development; and
(iii) Fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development

Copies of section 106 agreements are available under the 'Plans and docs' section of the relevent planning application.

Further information on section 106 agreements is available and tailored according to the relevant enquirer.