Developer Contributions Supplementary Guidance

Closes 17 Sep 2024

Managing New Infrastructure

Related information

  1. A central aim of City Plan is to direct growth where infrastructure capacity exists or can be readily delivered – an ‘infrastructure first’ approach where planning for infrastructure is evidence based and informs the spatial strategy. This also means that it is the Council’s preferred approach to secure infrastructure delivery directly through the development design and layout wherever possible. This will be secured by condition or legal agreement, with timing of its delivery aligned with construction and occupancy. 

  1. Where it is not possible or reasonable for development to directly deliver infrastructure, Policy Inf 3 and this guidance provides the mechanism for securing financial contributions towards the cost of delivering the necessary interventions, proportionate to their impact. The Action (Delivery) Programme provides the detail of when and by whom they will be delivered.  

  1. Where the cumulative impact of more than one development necessitates a shared intervention, this guidance sets out our approach to cumulative contribution zones (see section 3 below). 

  1. Infrastructure needs are based on collaborative working with the relevant services responsible for delivering infrastructure and services, and the costs of infrastructure used in this guidance are provided by these services, using their most up-to-date comparator metrics.  

  1. It is also the aim of this guidance to manage community expectations that new development will not negatively impact on existing infrastructure and services, by setting out how mitigation will be delivered timeously. 

  1. Parts Two to Five of this guidance, the appendices and the supporting information in the addendums detail:  

  • The origin of the infrastructure requirements/proposals in Part 4 with reference to the relevant evidence base (appraisals accompanying City Plan 2030). 

  • How the infrastructure relates to development and serves a planning purpose and meets NPF4 Policy 18 Infrastructure First and the Planning Circular 3/2012: planning obligations and good neighbour agreements.  

  • The best estimate of the likely cost of infrastructure, and the basis for this estimate. It will also provide information about alternative funding sources, especially where the action may be addressing existing issues and falls within existing and future capital investment budgets, with only a proportion expected from developer contributions.  

  • Other funding sources that are required to ‘fund the gap’ or front-fund so that infrastructure limitations do not stall development. Where known, these are set out in the supporting information.  As these will likely be from other services’ capital investment budgets, this information will be updated as information is available and included in updates to the Action (Delivery) Programme.  

8. We have set out principles for the Council’s approach to managing new infrastructure. Do you agree with these?