You are in: Home »  Planning Services »  Planning (Development Management) »  Unilateral Undertakings and Section 106 Agreements

Planning Obligations (Section 106 Agreements)

Planning Obligations

Planning obligations are legal documents that require developers to undertake certain works or make financial contributions in order to mitigate the impacts of the development proposed. Planning obligations are most commonly used on residential developments where the proposed new dwellings will lead to additional demands on open space, education provision and other local infrastructure. All new developments must address the likely obligations relevant to the scale of development proposed. There are two main types of planning obligation that can be used, depending on the complexity of the issues the obligation is required to cover:

Unilateral Undertakings

A unilateral undertaking is a simple form of planning obligation which is relatively quick to complete. It involves the applicant completing a legal undertaking to pay the required financial contribution to the District Council at a specified time.

Unilateral undertakings can be used where

1. the number and type of dwellings, and number of bedrooms proposed are clearly set out in the planning application description (for example, 3 x two-bedroomed dwellings and 6 x one-bedroomed flats) or shown on the accompanying plans, and
2. where the planning obligation only needs to cover financial contributions towards public open space, community facilities or education facilities.

Such undertakings are usually submitted at the same time as the planning application and are already signed and dated.

Section 106 Agreements

Where a planning obligation needs to cover a more complex range of issues, or in the case of an outline application where the type of dwelling and number of bedrooms proposed is not stated, applicants will be required to complete a type of planning obligation commonly known as a Section 106 Agreement. This type of legal agreement will need to be entered into by the applicant, anyone else who has an interest in the land forming the application site, the District Council, and in some cases the County Council. It is therefore a more complex type of planning obligation than a unilateral undertaking, and normally takes longer and is more expensive to complete.

Below is a table showing the types of contributions required for different scales of residential development and the type of planning obligation that should be used.

Number of dwellings proposed.	Infrastructure Requirements to address.	Type of obligation.
1 dwelling or more	Open space provision	Unilateral Undertaking
1 dwelling or more within 10 km of Exe Estuary Special Protection Area (SPA)	Habitat Mitigation Contribution and Open space provision	Unilateral undertaking
5 dwellings or more within settlements with a population of less than 3,000 persons	Affordable Housing Provision, Open space provision and Habitat Mitigation Contribution (where within 10km of Exe Estuary SPA)	Section 106 agreement
10 dwellings or more	Education provision, Open space provision and Habitat Mitigation Contribution (where within 10km of Exe Estuary SPA)	Section 106 agreement
15 dwellings or more	Affordable Housing Provision, Education provision, Open space provision and Habitat Mitigation Contribution (where within 10km of Exe Estuary SPA)	Section 106 agreement

Please Note: The above table is only an indication of likely contributions in some cases there may not be a need for provision in some of these areas while other developments may attract specific contributions towards site specific constraints such as highway improvements etc.

Where the development proposed only requires a Unilateral Undertaking under the table above an application will be expected to be accompanied by a completed Unilateral Undertaking. If your development requires a Section 106 agreement under the table detailed above then it is expected that all of the infrastructure requirements will be met through a Section 106 agreement (even those that can be addressed through a Unilateral Undertaking). For your assistance a  template Unilateral Undertaking is available here (75KB - 09 January 2012).  If you do not intend to make the required planning obligations then you must say so in your submission and state why you do not intend to do so. Unless this issue is addressed your application will be made invalid and will not be processed. You should however note that an application that is not accompanied by a unilateral undertaking is likely to be refused on the basis that the infrastructure demands arising from the development are not being met.

Where the above table refers to a Section 106 agreement an application must be accompanied by Heads of Terms for the agreement. This should detail what you are willing to sign up to as a detailed list including the areas of infrastructure you intend to provide on site and those you intend to make a financial contribution towards the local authorities making provision including the amount of the proposed contribution. Where this amount is not that required by the Council then you should include a justification for your proposed reduced contribution so that this can be considered.

Page last updated on 25 May 2012