Last week I spoke to local democracy reporter Joe Locker on the subject of S106 contributions, which is the money that developers pay towards the services their house buyers will eventually need. Joe’s article can be found here.
My contribution was published in part, with the rest of my statement as follows:
“What I see as a huge problem with s106 money is the length of time between when the sums are calculated, and when they are eventually spent. This is especially problematic as we’ve just gone through a period of high inflation.
For example £500,000 pounds for a community hub in 2014 that is delivered in 2024 would only now be worth the equivalent of £375,000 in today’s money. Which would be bad enough, but you also need to factor in the uplift in property values. The same £500,000 community hub from 2014 would now cost you £766,000 to construct. Because of a ten year delay the community will now have to make do with something that is half as good as they were promised. Ten years isn’t unusual, or even particularly long in planning terms. After twenty years what has grandly been called a community centre might well be delivered as barely more than a scout hut.
In the same period these same factors work the other way in favour for the developers who are building and selling houses that are worth more and more for each year they delay.
It seems in law that planners can link sums payable to inflation, but this isn’t something that we see regularly, and it’s communities who are missing out.”
If you have any comments or want to discuss subjects such as s106 you can contact me on chair@nottingham.greenparty.org.uk