Planning obligations

If you want to make larger developments, you will have extra responsibilities. We call these responsibilities your planning obligations. Planning obligations almost always apply to developers. The most common planning obligations are linked to:

• public open space
• affordable housing
• education
• highways
• town centre improvements
• health

Infrastructure Funding Statement

Our infrastructure funding statements shows the projects we fund with money from planning obligations.

• Infrastructure Funding Statement 2022-2023 (PDF) [147KB]
• Infrastructure Funding Statement for 2021-2022 (PDF) [146KB]  
• Infrastructure Funding Statement for 2020 - 2021 (PDF) [126KB]
• Infrastructure Funding Statement for 2019 - 2020 (PDF) [151KB]

We list your planning obligations in a Section 106 agreement. This is a contract between you (the developer) and us (the local planning authority). We attach Section 106 agreements to planning permission. If a development is unacceptable in planning terms, a Section 106 agreement makes it become acceptable.

We use Section 106 agreements to:

• set out the nature of the development. This might mean we make sure part of a new housing estate is made up of affordable homes
• compensate for any loss of damage resulting from a development (e.g. loss of open space)
• mitigate a development's impact. We might do this by using the money to increase public transport infrastructure

Any planning obligations have to be:

• necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms
• directly related to the development
• fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development

Read more information in our Planning Contributions Supplementary Planning Document.

We cannot tell you exactly what your planning obligations will be before you apply for planning permission. You can get guidance on what obligations you'll likely have. Check our Planning Contributions Supplementary Planning Document page for more information.

The cost of planning obligations depends on the complexity of the Section 106 agreement. The minimum legal fee is £772.50.

There's also a £800 monitoring fee. You'll have to pay this every time you make a payment linked to your planning obligations.

In some cases, we can agree to either change (modify) or cancel (discharge) a planning obligation. This agreement would be carried out as a deed. You can also apply to modify or discharge a planning obligation after a period of time has passed. Some planning obligations include a timescale before you can alter them. If this is not the case, you can apply to have an obligation altered after five years from the date we agreed it.

Download the form, notice, and certificate for the modification or discharge of planning obligations from our website.

Cancel or change your planning obligations

If you think a Section 106 planning obligation does not apply to your project contact customer services.