From 1 April 2023 we will charge a monitoring fee towards the administration costs of monitoring planning obligations.

The fee is based upon the occurrence of triggers and number of years required for compliance of a planning obligation.

The monitoring fee is to be paid upon the commencement of the development as defined in the associated s106 or unilateral undertaking, to enable the council to cover the costs of monitoring the commencement of development or other triggers.

See a complete list of our fees and charges.

The fee will be annually reviewed to ensure the administrative costs associated with monitoring and managing developer contributions are covered by the fee.

Where habitats mitigation payments are paid via a S111 agreement or through a CIL contribution and are not included within a s106 agreement, these obligations will not be subject to the monitoring fee.

Exeter City Council monitoring and reporting activities

We undertake a number of monitoring activities in relation to planning obligations including:

• data entry and maintenance of planning obligations database (Exacom)
• monitoring of trigger points for obligation actions and for receiving payments
• developer liaison and confirmation of compliance of obligations
• site visits, as required
• monitoring financial obligation time limits and spend
• calculation of indexation and interest applied to planning obligations
• the issuing of s106 Demand Notices (invoicing)
• processing of s106 payments
• chasing unpaid invoices
• arranging bank transfer of financial obligations
• contacting infrastructure providers and organising drawdowns
• reviewing projects to comply with legal obligations
• reconciliation of data
• reporting of the Infrastructure Funding Statement

The monitoring fee is based on an estimated number of planning obligations managed by the council annually, the percentage of officer time spent on the above activities per obligation and trigger, and the annual cost of software licences per obligation and trigger.

 

What the legislation and guidance say about planning obligation monitoring fees

Regulation 122 (2A) of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations 2010 (as amended) permit local authorities to charge a fee for monitoring and reporting on planning obligations. The Regulation 122 tests do not apply in relation to a planning obligation which requires a sum to be paid to a local planning authority in respect of the cost of monitoring (including reporting) provided:

• the sum to be paid fairly and reasonably relates in scale and kind to the development, and
• the sum to be paid to the authority does not exceed the authority’s estimate of its cost of monitoring the development over the lifetime of the planning obligations which relate to that development.

The Planning Practice Guidance currently states the following in relation to charging planning obligation monitoring fees:

Authorities can charge a monitoring fee through section 106 planning obligations, to cover the cost of monitoring and reporting on delivery of that section 106 obligation. Monitoring fees can be used to monitor and report on any type of planning obligation, for the lifetime of that obligation. Monitoring fees should not be sought retrospectively for historic agreements.

Fees could be a fixed percentage of the total value of the section 106 agreement or individual obligation; or could be a fixed monetary amount per agreement obligation (for example, for in-kind contributions). Authorities may decide to set fees using other methods. However, in all cases, monitoring fees must be proportionate and reasonable and reflect the actual cost of monitoring. Authorities could consider setting a cap to ensure that any fees are not excessive.

We will report income and expenditure relating to the Section 106 monitoring fee in the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) annually by the 31 December.