RE: S.106, education contributions and free schools - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
RE: S.106, education contributions and free schools
Hi
I have recently been asked whether developers could seek to avoid making education contributions via s.106 and instead agree to provide a school in a s.106 agreement where relevant. Has anybody else had developers put forward that they will build a school instead of providing a contribution to the LA towards the building of a school? If so, how has it turned out? Given the press around free schools and the Government making it known that there is a huge pot of money for building free schools, I am of the opinion that more developers may seek to go this way- especially if they feel that they can get any money returned to them for land/building.
If anyone has had a school built by a developer with no input from the LA, I would be interested to see the results as my concern is that corners would be cut in order to ensure profits were retained.
Thanks
Simon
Simon
We allowed Persimmon to deliver a new school on a new housing area at Wootton near Bedford and a second is to be delivered by developers on another site in Bedford starting in the summer.
We included provisions in the S106, including an outline specification. The aim at the time was to assist the developers as part of the negotiations as they thought they could deliver more cheaply than us and to avoid "funding gaps" .
We did find there is less control over timescale, and the project itself ( althoguh there was liaison with colleagues) and I think through preference we would resist agreeing to more deliver more schools in this way.
Alison
Thanks Alison
How is the quality of the build of the school? My suspicion is that in order to build cheaper, developers would sacrifice build quality, and given that they are unlikely to have any experience building schools, the functionality may also suffer. Has this been your experience?
Thanks
Simon
The school was not built by the developer but commissioned by them. Stride Tregown is the architect...see their website they have a "S106 Model school" and Mi-Space ( Midas group) was the builder. The developers considered this was more cost effective to them than passing funding to the Council. My education colleagues did visit an example at Bracknell before agreeing to try the approach.
We have now moved to cheaper forms of build for primary schools ( Sunensis type) so I suspect there will not be much different in quality.
Alison
Rebecca Randall, modifié il y a 8 années.
RE: S.106, education contributions and free schools
Enthusiast Publications: 60 Date d'inscription: 06/05/14 Publications RécentesHi
We included the provision of a primary school for two strategic Greenfield allocations for 1600 homes and 2000 homes respectively. The timescales for delivery were set out in the S106 and in the latter, more recent case, the specifications for the school facilities formed an appendix to the S106. All details had to be approved by the education authority - which is not us because we are two tier.
As far as I know (I became involved quite late in the day with both schemes), both went well. The schools have been built to the standards required by the education authority and on time. We are now proposing similar S106 obligations on another future Greenfield allocation. We have got education on our R.123 list but specifically excluded educational facilities connected with this specific housing allocation.
The approach you take will depend very much on the viewpoint and resourcing of your education authority. For us, delivery of new schools seems to work well with developers leading, and I dont think our education authority has the man power to project manage these types of schemes.
Let me know if you want me to send over any S106 clauses etc.
Hi - thanks for the details provided above.
One last question on this - have you had any issues relating to public contract regulations/procurement rules? I only ask because the legal advice I have been provided from a number of different sources have advised that such a section 106 agreement would be a public works contract that would require the LA to follow the procedure set out in the Regulations.
Many thanks
Simon