News release

Affordable homes provided under Section 106 agreements (S.106)* could be delivered faster, better and with more certainty, according to new research published by national regeneration agency,  English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation and ATLAs (Advisory Team for Large Applications).

The report Cascades: improving certainty in the delivery of affordable housing for large-scale development? emphasises the role that flexible mechanisms or ‘cascades’ within S.106 agreements can have in ensuring delivery of affordable homes over the full development period especially in large-scale planning applications, usually involving around 500 homes**.

Beverley Spear, Head of Housing Consultancy for English Partnerships, who led the research said: “Negotiations, especially on large planning applications often stall and hold up progress because there is an unacceptable risk that funding will not be available for S.106 affordable homes, especially if a scheme stretches over several Housing Corporation investment programmes.

“What our research has found, and our report is proposing, is that a robust cascade agreement - one that includes options for varying the quantity, tenure and mix of affordable homes over the lifetime of a large scheme - should be explored as part of the overall planning negotiation.”

The report does not recommend a ‘one-size-fits-all’ cascade agreement, but does propose the adoption of a process framework or holistic project management approach.  This sets out a structure where affordable housing is agreed within a task group (one of several dealing with major issues), referring back at key stages to a main steering board responsible for setting the vision and objectives for the scheme.

Cascade mechanisms are not a new concept and good practice within and between local authorities is developing.  New national housing investment and planning policy guidance has also been published to improve alignment of grant investment decisions within the planning process. The report concludes that cascades have not always delivered the desired outcomes because not enough time and attention has been paid to making them robust and responsive to the main concerns of key stakeholders. 

Bedford Borough Council has successfully used cascades to unlock a development programme of 8,000 homes in its area and David Bailey, Head of Planning and Housing Services, endorses the approach outlined in the report***. 

"We support the proposed process framework that recommends early consideration of affordable housing issues during pre-application discussions.  The use of cascades, together with our requirement for free and serviced land for affordable housing, provides a sound value for money case well placed to attract grant funding from the Housing Corporation and add certainty to delivery.  In our experience this approach has assisted in unlocking deadlock in negotiations, speeded up delivery and resulted in a good balance of local benefits, laying the building blocks for a successful long term community," said David Bailey.

The Housing Corporation is also developing new approaches to investment that will enhance the value achieved from public subsidy, allow more frequent market engagement and provide more certainty for regionally prioritised strategic sites.  Currently the Housing Corporation’s funding is based on a three year investment programme but there is now potential to make allocations over five years for strategic sites.  

Graeme Geddes, Planning Manager for the Housing Corporation commented: "The Housing Corporation's ambition to deliver its largest ever affordable housing programme will demand more effective use of planning obligations - this work will assist our partners and stakeholders in working with us to achieve this."

House builders have welcomed the report and in principle are keen to progress the wider use of cascade agreements.  Andrew Whitaker of the Home Builders Federation added: “This piece of research into the use of cascades in S.106 agreements makes an excellent starting point in explaining the process of affordable housing provision through planning obligations and the need for, and use of, cascades.”

The report is available to download from the Publications page or  www.housingcorp.gov.uk where details are also provided for obtaining hard copies. 

The authors will be promoting the research at number of discussion forums over the next six months.

* Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990  allows a local planning authority (LPA) to create  planning obligations by deed of agreement with an applicant to restrict the use of land or development, require operations to be carried out on the land or used in a specified way or to require payments to the authority.

The obligation is sometimes termed as a 'Section 106 agreement'.

** or equivalent sized mixed use sites and/or sites that have a long development period over a number of phases.

*** Case study on West Bedfordshire is included in the report in Chapter 4 and Appendix 1, pg 29

English Partnerships is the government’s national regeneration agency. Its aim is to deliver high quality, sustainable growth in England.

The Housing Corporation is the Government’s national affordable homes agency, regulating nearly 2,000 housing associations across England and investing in new affordable homes, including its biggest-ever investment programme of over £8 billion for 2008-11.

The Housing Corporation and English Partnerships are working together with Communities and Local Government to establish the proposed Homes and Communities Agency.

ATLAs is provided by English Partnerships as part of the Planning Advisory Service, for the Department for Communities and Local Government. Its role is to help unblock the issues holding up large planning applications, increase the knowledge and expertise of local authorities in handling such projects, share good practice across the sector and act as a partner to local authorities and independent reviewer of large applications and issues.