In case of enquiry contact Simon Payne

Direct Dial 01223 457101

Fax 01223 47369

email [email address]

Environment

Richard Taylor

17 August 2010

Dear Mr Taylor

Freedom of Information Act 2000; Request for Information about S106 Refunds - Belvedere Development, Cambridge

Thank you for your recent request for information relating to the above.

You posed 2 questions. In reply I am able to provide the following information.

Question 1

Why contributions [£34,575 affordable housing contribution; and £14,523 informal open space] were repaid.

With regard to the refund of £34,575, relating to the affordable housing contribution, the Developer had paid a capital contribution of £2,242,950 towards the provision of affordable housing, as required by the original S106 Agreement. Over time, this original sum accrued interest. An amount of £2,660,376 [including accrued interest] was used by the City Council towards the provision of eight new affordable housing schemes within the City. The sum of £34,575 represents additional interest that accrued while the above schemes were being implemented, but before the money had been spent. It was not possible to allocate the residual £34,575 interest to a qualifying scheme within the time that remained before the end of the 5 years from the date of the original payment, due to the timescales and complexities involved in progressing such schemes. The S106 Agreement required repayment of any unallocated monies by that date.

With regard to the refund of £14,523, relating to the informal open space contribution, the Developer had paid a capital contribution of £152,127 for provision of informal open space, as required by the original S106 Agreement. Again, over time, this original sum accrued interest giving a total amount of £164,812. The sum of £14,523 represents interest accrued from the contribution of £12,685 together with an under-spend of £1,838 from within the capital projects budgets. It was not possible to allocate the residual £14,523 to a qualifying scheme within the time frame of the S106 Agreement because there was a requirement to repay any part of the contribution not used within 5 years of receiving the payment.

At the time contributions were committed to these schemes, it was on the basis of the S106 capital sum, to which interest was added, in accordance with accountancy rules that were in place at the time. There was no failure on the Council's part by operating in accordance with those rules.

Question 2

“Have there been any refunds of S106 contributions since 1 April 2009 because the Council have failed to spend the funds within the time period specified by the S106 Agreement”

No. But for completeness I should explain that there have been several cases where S106 contributions have been refunded since 1 April 2009, where the original planning permission has expired and therefore not been implemented, or has been superseded by a later decision. The Council may only spend S106 contributions after the relevant planning permission has been implemented. When a permission lapses, the Council has an obligation to return any contribution that has already been paid.

I trust that the information is helpful. If you are not happy with the way in which your request has been dealt with please contact Antoinette Jackson, Chief Executive on 01223 457001.

You may also contact the Information Commissioner if you are still not happy with the way your request has been dealt with. The Information Commissioner's address is:

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Simon Payne

Director of Environment

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