Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Labour opposes Government proposals to allow appeals on unviable section 106 obligations

03 Oct 2012, 2:36 pm

The Labour Party will try and block the coalition's proposal to allow developers to appeal affordable housing requirements imposed as part of a section 106 agreement, Shadow Communities Secretary Hilary Benn has told delegates at the annual Labour Party conference.

Benn said the proposals were "outrageously centralising" and that they would cause further delay in the planning system.

“I am very anxious that the proposed changes to the s106 regime are rejected. It will build delay into the system because developers that have already got their s106 agreements in place will say, “Oh, I think we might just wait for the legislation, now”," said Benn.

“The only way to get development off the ground is to have speedy, local decisions; we do not need further delay, and we certainly do not need a Planning Inspectorate that can ride rough-shod over existing agreements.”

Benn said he did not believe the stagnant development market and the housing crisis could be blamed on the planning system. "The sole reason is that nobody can raise the finance," he said.

Benn has previously spoken out against the proposals, saying that if the changes are not implemented until 2013 it could create a hiatus as companies waited for the new rules before proceeding with projects.

The proposals to relax the section 106 regime were announced by the Government last month as part of a wider housing package intended to boost housebuilding and the economy.

This followed the launch of a consultation in August on proposals to give developers the option to ask councils to renegotiate section 106 obligations that were agreed prior to April 2010. Currently these obligations cannot be renegotiated for five years once a council refuses a request for voluntary renegotiation by a developer.