Sounds like an excellent development prevention plan to me. I deal with S106 on a daily basis, mainly removing them although at times I do get involved in negotiation of new agreements and renegotiation of existing ones. I prefer to wait until the 5 years is up before taking them apart but some people either have little patience or are unable to build what they have received permission for, in many cases on single dwellings the price the LPA expects the house to be sold for an 'affordable dwelling' is tens of £thousands less than what it costs to build and of because the lender will only offer 80% of the reduced selling price compounds the problem. The huge variation in demands from various LPAs is a postcode lottery which needs to be addressed because it is making a mockery of the main purpose of the legislation. In extreme case such as the Snowdonia National Park they demand £60,000 in 'commuted sum' for a single plot, in Shropshire it is £8,000, quite a difference! It is obviously a case of some planning directors having completely lost the 'plot' so to speak. If anyone wants to explore how we can make these developer contributions work in practice they are welcome to have a chat. My main concern is using this legislation to specify who can live in a dwelling and how much a dwelling can be sold for, this doesn't work in practice and can expose the LPA to a claim for damages. After a few years of research the Scottish Government decided last November to stop using S106 to control occupancy apart from exeptional cases so perhaps the rest of the UK will follow. Policy on the hoof is no answer to pathetic public funding of social housing.
