Agenda item

Item Includes ‘Funding for Infrastructure in Burntwood and rural areas’

The report was presented by Cllr Alex Farrell (Cabinet Member for Housing & Local Plan). He confirmed that work on a new Local Plan had started and that the authority was looking at how to effectively allocate CIL money which the council receives from development.

The report proposes a new governance process including the creation of an infrastructure list annually and the formation of a cross-party panel to look at how to best distribute the money. Members suggested the membership of any panel should be extended to a minimum of 5 councillors.

·       Members highlighted the open bidding process as a key part of making sure money was distributed effectively.

The Cabinet member believed allocations should be distributed to projects identified on the infrastructure list. He noted that the money is intended to be directed to strategic infrastructure, and many bids did not previously meet this requirement. He confirmed that the infrastructure list would be a live list, regularly updated as things change.

·       How often will O&S consider these issues, or will these decisions now only go through the new panel?

The Member Panel will feed back to O&S on a periodic basis similar to how a task group would. The proposal is that the SIG officer group meets 3 times a year; it could feed back to the Panel after every meeting and also meet the Panel after a CIL bidding round has ended and bids have been scored.

Members questioned whether the problems that occurred last year had been fully addressed by this report. They highlighted that previously a lot of officer time was required, certain bids were not approved despite support from O&S, and a significant amount of CIL money was allocated to the district council last year. The Cabinet member agreed that funding should be spread out more. He agreed that the authority was keen to engage more with infrastructure providers such as the NHS on where they needed further infrastructure support.

·       Members highlighted that with officers collaboratively working together, this raises the risk that applications for CIL money could be merged to get applications to meet the required criteria. Members suggested limiting the size of internal bids as a solution.

The Cabinet member raised concerns about limiting the size of bids, but suggested the possibility of a warning being triggered if bids hit a certain limit.

Members raised concerns about the ownership of the infrastructure list, suggesting a review should be a standing item on the SIG agenda and that parish councils needed to be involved with suggestions into this process.

The Cabinet member agreed that the district should do more to help inform parish councils plan how to effectively utilise any funding they receive and highlight opportunities that may be on the horizon.

RESOLVED: The committee reviewed and commented on the proposed changes to the governance of planning obligations.

·       They recommended the cross-party Member Panel that will consider and provide a steer on SIG recommendations prior to consideration by Cabinet be comprised of 5 members including the cabinet member.

·       They agreed with the creation of an annual ‘Infrastructure List’ within the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) which would set out a shortlist of strategic projects and/or types of projects that would be eligible for applications for CIL funding that year, but recommended the list be developed with engagement with infrastructure providers.

·       They approved the revised CIL governance and administration procedures and allocating and spending CIL additional guidance documents to reflect the proposed changes.