Infrastructure funding statement 2024 to 2025

Foreword

This report:

• outlines how we have spent developer contributions from new housing and other developments in the last financial year
• promotes visibility of the processes involved, as we seek to ensure that growth and development in Lincolnshire communities brings investment in supporting facilities and infrastructure.

Housing and other developments in Lincolnshire are essential to make sure our economy and communities thrive. Developments can also lead to an increased need for public services such as schools, transport and other infrastructure. All local authorities in Lincolnshire take their responsibility for planning very seriously. Councils work together to consider the positive and negative impacts of any development, before permission is granted.

Construction companies and developers will often be required to make contributions towards local improvements at the time of granting planning permission. This is either through a ‘Section 106 agreement’, or through ‘Community Infrastructure Levy’ (CIL), depending what is in place in each district.

The following is a summary of what we have achieved in the 2024 to 2025 financial year:

• £842,798.06 received from CIL to pay towards the cost of the Lincoln Eastern Bypass
• £4,821,336.08 received from Section 106 monies in total 
• £5,144,500.92 spent in the year towards education facilities
• £504,386.30 spent on bus stop, bus service and pedestrian improvements
• £816,276.61 spent on highways improvements, including Traffic Regulation Orders and signals at junctions.

Section 106 and CIL are a small part of our wider spending. Further information on our capital programme and Government grant funding can be found on our website.

Introduction

This statement summarizes details of certain types of financial and other contributions we have secured or spent for the 2024 to 2025 financial year. This fulfils the obligation for all councils to report annually, as set out in the second of the 2019 amendments to the original Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010, under the Planning Act 2008. These regulations are referred to elsewhere in this statement as the 2019(no2) Regulations or simply the Regulations. The summary details primarily relate to the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and ’section 106 agreements’. Information has also been included on agreements under the Highways Act as is optional under the CIL Regulations.

The sections of this statement provide the following to meet Regulation 121A requirements:

• statement on how future Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is intended to be used to fund infrastructure
• CIL Report, including details on CIL transferred to Lincolnshire County Council to March 2025
• section 106 Report. Relevant summary details of ’section 106 agreements’ to March 2025

This is the sixth such annual statement with Regulations introduced in advance of the 2019 to 2020 IFS.

References in this statement to 'the year' or 'the reported year' are 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Statement on future Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

This part of the IFS relates to clause 'a' of Regulation 121A which is focused on CIL.

We work across a ’two-tier’ Lincolnshire, with the seven district councils making up the other tier. Although we work closely with each district, it is those councils which are the CIL charging authorities and so responsible for if and how to set CIL. Creating a local plan and setting CIL are often closely aligned, so the explanations below are made in that context for each area of Lincolnshire.

The following councils do not have CIL:

• Boston Borough Council
• East Lindsey District Council
• South Holland District Council
• South Kesteven District Council

We will continue to engage with these four councils on their local plans, including policies for section 106 and potential CIL. 

In 2018, CIL was set up locally by:

• City of Lincoln Council
• North Kesteven District Council
• West Lindsey District Council

We and those three districts had already formed the Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee to create a joint local plan. Where CIL has been passed to us by the districts, it has repaid part of the cost of the Lincoln Eastern Bypass. The bypass was in large part forward funded by us. The bypass has been a longstanding principle of the four authorities' joint documents around the local plan and CIL. This included a signed memorandum of understanding between the authorities that agrees its importance in developer contributions funding. The bypass was also a key part of the Lincolnshire local transport plan and Lincoln transport strategy. We intend that this same purpose continues for future CIL from this part of Lincolnshire, working with the three district councils and the joint strategic planning committee.

CIL Report

This part of the IFS relates to clause 'b' of Regulation 121A. Each matter from schedule 2 of the Regulations is included in brackets alongside the relevant information.

We received £842,798.06 from CIL for 2024 to 2025 (matter 1(b) in Schedule 2 to the Regulations).  

As written in the statement on future CIL, above, all the CIL received was used solely to make repayments towards some of the cost of Lincoln Eastern Bypass. Spending on the bypass has been many millions of pounds larger, given the scale of that project. There was no other CIL spending in the year (matter 1(e) and matter 1(g)(i)).

There was no CIL, whenever collected, which was allocated but not spent during the year (matter 1(f) and 1(h)).

Of the amount of CIL spending as above, noting that this is a loan repayment, the notional interest is £31,163.30 (matter 1(g)(ii)).

We are not a CIL collecting authority. This is because ’county matters’ development almost exclusively relates to minerals and waste operations or to infrastructure itself which do not usually involve buildings. In instances where buildings are developed under relevant permissions, these would rarely, if ever, meet the legal tests to attract CIL. Therefore, matters 1(a) to (l) are either covered above or do not apply to us. In short, we did not collect any CIL for the relevant year and are unlikely to do so in future years.

Section 106 report

This part of the IFS relates to 'c' of Regulation 121A, as amended by the second 2019 amendment to the CIL Regulations. Each line in the following table addresses a matter as it appears in Schedule 2 of the Regulations.

The optional information against matters 4(a) and 4(b) of Schedule 2 is also provided. This is details on Section 278 agreements (delivered under that section of the Highways Act 1980) and other highways agreements (respectively).

Table 1: Summary details of planning obligations money allocated but not spent during 2024 to 2025 (matter 3(g))

Table 2: Summary details of planning obligations money spent by LCC during 2024 to 2025 (matter 3(h) to (i))

Table 3: Summary details of S278 Highways Agreements entered into in 2024/25 (matter 4(a))

Table 4: Summary details of other Highways Agreements for 2024 to 2025 (matter 4(b))