Inspector removes condition requiring arrangements for financial contributions

Planning Inspector Graham Garnham said that use of a condition was an inappropriate means of securing arrangements to meet the obligation for contributions. He said that it was not clear how the proposed development was directly and proportionately related to the required contributions.

London Borough of Barnet Council had imposed the condition on a planning permission granted to the developer for a replacement dwelling in North London. The condition set out that the developer had to submit details to the local authority of how he would meet an obligation to contribute to costs for education, health and library facilities as well as associated monitoring costs. Unless such details were submitted to and approved by the local authority, the development could not go ahead.

The council argued that such a condition had been used in other cases where it has been considered unduly onerous to require a developer to enter directly into a formal planning obligation. The Inspector said that this was contrary to Government guidance on the use of conditions. The guidance says that planning permission cannot be granted subject to a condition that the applicant enters into a planning obligation.

The council referred to its local policies, particularly its Unitary Development Plan (UDP) to argue that the condition's requirement to meet the contribution obligation was justified. The policies adopt a standard approach of requiring financial infrastructure contributions from developers. The Inspector accepted this, but said that the obligation in this case did not meet statutory tests that it must directly relate to the development and be fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind.

The Inspector awarded costs to the developer.