Regulation 18 Draft Local Plan

Support

Representation ID: 2305

Received: 23/04/2024

Respondent: Department for Education

Annual housing requirement of 14,020 will place additional pressure on social infrastructure such as education facilities. The Local Plan will need to be ‘positively prepared’ to meet the objectively assessed development needs and infrastructure requirements.

Supports the principle of South Kesteven District safeguarding land for the provision of new schools to meet government planning policy objectives as set out in paragraph 99 of the NPPF.

South Kesteven District should also have regard to the Joint Policy Statement from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and the Secretary of State for Education on Planning for Schools Development3 (2011) which sets out the government’s commitment to support the development of state-funded schools and their delivery through the planning system.

Support

Representation ID: 2306

Received: 23/04/2024

Respondent: Department for Education

The next version of the Local Plan should seek to identify specific sites which can deliver the early years, school and post-16 places needed to support growth, based on the latest evidence of identified need and demand in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan (2018).

The department recommends the Council consider highlighting in the next version of the Local Plan that:
- specific requirements for developer contributions to increase the capacity of education infrastructure through expansion or new facilities will be confirmed at application stage to ensure the latest data on identified need informs delivery; and that
- requirements to deliver schools or nurseries on some sites could change in future if it were demonstrated and agreed that the site had become surplus to requirements, and is therefore no longer required for educational use.

Object

Representation ID: 2307

Received: 23/04/2024

Respondent: Department for Education

The site allocation Stamford North (SKPR-281 (STM1-H1)) and/or associated safeguarding policies should also seek to clarify requirements for the delivery of new education infrastructure, including when it should be delivered to support housing growth, the minimum site area required, any preferred site characteristics, and any requirements for safeguarding additional land for future expansion where need and demand indicates this might be necessary. Establishing these requirements within the plan is particularly important for securing sites at an appropriate value when additional land or standalone sites for schools need to be purchased, as DfE ‘Basic Need’ funding allocations do not factor in the costs of site acquisition.

Object

Representation ID: 2308

Received: 23/04/2024

Respondent: Department for Education

The site allocation Spitalgate Heath (SKPR -278 (G3-H1) and/or associated safeguarding policies should also seek to clarify requirements for the delivery of new education infrastructure, including when it should be delivered to support housing growth, the minimum site area required, any preferred site characteristics, and any requirements for safeguarding additional land for future expansion where need and demand indicates this might be necessary. Establishing these requirements within the plan is particularly important for securing sites at an appropriate value when additional land or standalone sites for schools need to be purchased, as DfE ‘Basic Need’ funding allocations do not factor in the costs of site acquisition.

Object

Representation ID: 2309

Received: 23/04/2024

Respondent: Department for Education

The site allocation Prince William of Gloucester Barracks (SKPR -65 (GR3 -H1)), and/or associated safeguarding policies should also seek to clarify requirements for the delivery of new education infrastructure, including when it should be delivered to support housing growth, the minimum site area required, any preferred site characteristics, and any requirements for safeguarding additional land for future expansion where need and demand indicates this might be necessary. Establishing these requirements within the plan is particularly important for securing sites at an appropriate value when additional land or standalone sites for schools need to be purchased, as DfE ‘Basic Need’ funding allocations do not factor in the costs of site acquisition.

Object

Representation ID: 2310

Received: 23/04/2024

Respondent: Department for Education

One of the tests of soundness is that a Local Plan is ‘effective’, meaning the plan should be deliverable over its period. In this context, there is a need to ensure that financial and land contributions made by developers are sufficient to deliver the education infrastructure required to meet the increase in demand generated by new developments. The department notes that South Kesteven’s requirements for S106 obligations are set out in the adopted Local Plan and Planning Obligations SPD (2012) and that these will be updated to reflect Local Plan review priorities, and that the Council will ensure appropriate rates are levied and the right infrastructure is secured across the district.

The department supports the use of planning obligations to secure developer contributions for education wherever there is a need to mitigate the direct impacts of development, consistent with Regulation 122 of the CIL Regulations. The advantage of using Section 106 relative to CIL for funding education infrastructure is that funding is ringfenced for this purpose, providing more certainty that developer contributions will be used to fund the new school, early years or sixth form places that are needed. This is particularly important in two-tier local authority areas, and where strategic site allocations are planned.

We also request a reference within the Local Plan’s policies or supporting text to explain that developer contributions may be secured retrospectively, when it has been necessary to forward fund infrastructure projects in advance of anticipated housing growth. An example of this would be the local authority’s expansion of a secondary school to ensure that places are available in time to support development coming forward, when phased developer contributions had been agreed to maintain development viability. This helps to demonstrate that the plan is positively prepared and deliverable over its period.