No government help on planning gain until end of year

The ODPM has admitted that it may not be able to give the industry long-awaited guidance on section 106 agreements before the end of the year.

The guidance on planning gain has been promised since July 2002 and concern is mounting that the delay is hampering the delivery of the 200,000 homes called for in the Communities Plan. Many housing professionals also fear that the continued silence from the government is making the consultation on planning policy guidance note PPG3, launched on 17 July, all but irrelevant.

Gideon Amos, director of the Town and Country Planning Association, said: "The government has not made its intentions clear. Gaining money from development is the big issue in planning – it could be the undoing of the Communities Plan."

Section 106 agreements are the method by which councils force private developers to provide social housing or other community improvements in return for planning permission. It has been widely criticised for slowing down housing developments, and the Royal Town Planning Institute is campaigning for it to be abolished.

At last Thursday's RTPI conference, Delivering Affordable Housing, Hyde Group chief executive Charlie Adams said: "Section 106 creates a real difficulty between us and private developers. Housing associations are brought in far too late and generally given the leftover houses at the back of a site."

A government proposal to replace the system with a tariff was withdrawn in July last year. The government promised to come up with another workable alternative but has failed to deliver the promised consultation.

The issue of gaining money from development could be the undoing of the Communities Plan

Gideon Amos, TCPA

Planning gain is one of the issues being looked at by economist Kate Barker for the Treasury's review of the planning system, but the ODPM declined to comment on whether this was one of the reasons for the delay in its guidance.

In addition, the PPG3 consultation launched earlier in the summer will struggle without more guidance from government on the wider issue of section 106. Kelvin MacDonald, director of policy and research at the Royal Town Planning Institute said: "It's difficult to deal with PPG3 without knowing what they're doing on section 106. If they go on to change the system in general, then it will have a knock-on effect."

A spokesman for the ODPM said: "We're still aiming to put out a consultation document in the autumn."

Proposals to allow commercial land to be used for housing could scupper regeneration plans for the South-east coast, the local regional assembly has warned.