Section 106 Agreements

General information

Copy documents: enquiries@threerivers.gov.uk

Information regarding compliance with obligations within a Section 106 Agreement can be obtained from the following:

Non-financial obligations:  Development Management Team – enquiries@threerivers.gov.uk

Financial obligations:  Land and Property Team – landcharges.co-ordinator@threerivers.gov.uk

A fee may be charged.

Please note that obligations prior to 2005 are not routinely monitored and we may not have full information.  Please also note that some financial contributions were in favour of Hertfordshire County Council and it may be advisable to contact that authority in respect of any compliance of those contributions – growth@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Monitoring Charge for S106 Agreements

Background

Please note the below does not relate to fees for monitoring compliance with Biodiversity Net Gain requirements. These will be subject of a separate fee and further details will be made available in due course.

In some circumstances, planning permission is granted only following the completion of a S106 agreement/planning obligation to secure matters which provide mitigation against the effects of a planning permission.

Regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations (2010, as amended) sets out that planning obligations may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission if the obligation is:

a. necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms.
b. directly related to the development; and
c. fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development.

The Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations were amended in 2019 to insert Regulation 122(2A) which permits local authorities to charge a fee for monitoring and reporting on planning obligations. The Regulation 122 tests (as set out above)do not apply in relation to a planning obligation which requires a sum to be paid to a local planning authority in respect of the cost of monitoring (including reporting) provided:

• the sum to be paid fairly and reasonably relates in scale and kind to the development, and
• the sum to be paid to the authority does not exceed the authority’s estimate of its cost of monitoring the development over the lifetime of the planning obligations which relate to that development.

The Planning Practice Guidance currently states the following in relation to charging planning obligation monitoring fees:

The change in the CIL regulations offers the council the opportunity to introduce a S106 monitoring fee and ensure appropriate resources are in place to ensure ongoing compliance with obligations and withrequirements to publish details of development contributions in the Infrastructure Funding Statement.

What does monitoring involve?

Following the completion of an agreement and the issue of a planning decision, the local authority monitors compliance with the agreement. This monitoring involves a number of steps which may involve input from the council’s planning enforcement team alongside other council departments including Legal, Finance, Housing and Local Land Charges. The steps will include:

• Collecting information from developers and applicants and entering into a database management system and ensuring that information remains up to date.
• Monitoring of trigger points for obligation actions and for receiving payments
• Liaison with developers and confirmation of compliance with obligations.
• Undertaking site visits to understand whether commencement has taken place or trigger points met.
• Calculations of indexation and issuing invoices.
• Instigating any enforcement action in the event of non-compliance or unpaid invoices
• Reporting on the delivery of the obligation.

Where will outcome of the monitoring be published?

Details of monitoring will be published in the Infrastructure Funding Statement available online.

Current fees

The fees have been calculated by estimating the time required to undertake the monitoring activities set out above, alongside the roles/members of staff who would need to undertake the activities. They are based on monitoring for the lifetime of a development.

S106 Monitoring Fee from 13 January 2025:

Where an obligation secures more than one category of works as set out in the table above, a fee is payable for each category. The full monitoring fee is payable for the largest fee category, and 50% of the monitoring fee for any subsequent categories.

The monitoring fee will be secured by the obligation, and will generally be payable on implementation of works unless an alternative reasonable trigger point is mutually agreed between parties.

Monitoring Charge for Biodiversity Net Gain

As with the Monitoring Charge for S106 Agreements, the monitoring fees for Biodiversity Net Gains (BNG) have been calculated on a cost-recovery basis to cover the resources required to monitor the creation and enhancement of habitats which are proposed to either achieve BNG on-site, or proposed as part of a habitat bank used for developments which can only achieve off-site gains.

Planning Practice Guidance (Paragraph: 028 Reference ID: 74-028-20240214) confirms that Local Planning Authorities can charge a monitoring fee through S106 planning obligations to cover the cost of monitoring and reporting on delivery of that S106 agreement.

The monitoring fees for 2025/6 are set out below and will be subject to annual review. 

Please note the fees are not subject to VAT.

These fees were agreed by the council's Policy and Resources Committee on 9 June 2025.