Agenda item

Mr Colin Finch, Strategic programme manager, and Ms Victoria Thistlewood, Project Manager were in attendance for this item.

1.             Mr Robey introduced the item and Mr Finch provided an overview of the report and updated Members on the public consultation.

2.             The Chair commended the report but raised concerns around planning & developments on a national level.

3.             Mr Finch, Ms Thistlewood, Mr Jones, and Ms Holt-Castle responded to the following comments from Members:

a)       A Member asked how important community engagement was in this process and what could be done to increase public contribution. Ms Thistlewood responded that although the consultation was open to the public it was very technical and targeted towards district planning authorities, developers, and landowners. She said that consultation with the public would be done on a service level basis going forward.

b)       A Member asked what mechanisms were in place to amend the policy in relation to climate change, technology and building regulations. Mr Finch responded that any action on climate change would be covered by other policies, including the environmental policy.

c)        A Member asked how districts would be encouraged to sign up to the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and benefit from smaller developments in their boundaries. Mr Finch said KCC wouldn’t be encouraging local authorities to take this route as the contributions towards infrastructure, through this mechanism, offered lower amounts of money compared to Section 106 contributions towards KCC infrastructure.

d)       A Member asked what safeguards were in place to stop developers intentionally building in smaller batches to avoid the 10-property threshold set out in the report. Ms Thistlewood said that KCC worked with the district councils on this, and that the behaviour was monitored.

e)       Members raised concerns over the lack of power provided to KCC to ensure developers contribute towards infrastructure costs. Members also asked how much KCC were likely to receive from developers in the next 8 years and whether this was sufficient to deliver infrastructure needed. Mr Jones said it was difficult to accurately judge how much investment was needed for infrastructure and noted that large infrastructure projects often required Government support and national investment. Mr Jones highlighted the importance of the council’s mapping platform to identify where and when infrastructure was necessary and what funding was required for sustainable communities in Kent.  Levelling up funding had also played a part in ensuring that the necessary infrastructure was in place to meet the needs of the county. Ms Holt-Castle raised risks to the authority from the levelling up and regeneration bill and told Members that her team had been looking to influence government on this to mitigate negative effects.

RESOLVED to endorse the proposed decision to:

(i)       proceed with formal adoption of the updated Developer Contributions Guide;

(ii)       approve the service standards and methodology for calculating development mitigation contained within;

(iii)      delegate to the Director of Growth and Communities to sign off any subsequent reviews/updates and changes to approaches to contribution calculation methodologies on behalf of the County Council other than for when either a contribution rate is required to be increased beyond inflation or the introduction of a new contribution request;

(iv)      delegate to the Director of Growth and Communities to take appropriate actions including, but not limited to, KCC entering into legal agreements, legal charges and negotiation of contributions for planning applications of proven viability concern, as necessary to implement this decision; and

(v)      to confirm the use of the BCIS All-In Tender price index (or ROADCON where required by Public Rights of Way or Highways), with the base date for indexation set at Quarter 1 2022 as shown at Appendix 1.