Haringey considers reducing Spurs' section 106 agreement liabilities by £16m

The revised section 106 agreement proposes to reduce the funding obligations from £16 million to under £0.5m and remove the need to provide any affordable housing. The Council has said that the scheme is not financially viable and the revisions have been recommended to improve the scheme’s viability.

A section 106 agreement is a legally binding agreement under the Town and Country Planning Act which allows a local planning authority to agree planning obligations with a developer in association with the granting of planning permission.

This section 106 agreement relates to the grant of planning permission for the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and associated commercial and residential development that comprises the Northumberland Development Project (NDP).

The committee report recommended that the Council delete the 50% affordable homes  requirement from section 106 agreement for the NDP scheme and recommended allowing THFC to sell all homes on the open market.

The proposals include a new obligation on THFC that requires the use of land value from the 'enabling' development of new homes to support the stadium scheme. Whilst the Council recognise the need for affordable homes in the borough, it said that "if the NDP Scheme as a whole is not viable then no new homes will be built".

The new outline planning application for the housing element of the proposed NDP scheme, contained in the committee report, proposed to increase the number of flats to 285. The Council officers’ recommendation is to allow all of these to be sold on the open market "to boost development value and support overall NDP Scheme viability".

The proposed changes to the section 106 agreement include reducing THFC's highways and transport obligations from £13.3m to £477,000. The Mayor of London and the Council would fund £7.5m and the remaining works have been deleted from the plan as it was concluded that they were non-essential works, the committee report said.

Other proposed changes to obligations have been made in respect of heritage property, employment and skills, regeneration, education and monitoring. A proposed new healthcare obligation has been added.

Subject to approval of the proposed measures, the securing of development finance and the revision of the section 106 agreement, THFC plans to deliver the NDP Scheme in three phases. The first phase would commence this autumn and the stadium would start next summer.

The Council's Cabinet approved a £9m funding package for north Tottenham at a meeting last night, which together with the Mayor of London's £18m funding package provides an overall £27m package of investment for north Tottenham.