North Herts Council says that not enough infrastructure is being put in place when housing developments are built – and is working on a plan to fix the problem.

The local authority's overview and scrutiny committee agreed last week (Tuesday, 12 November) to set up a group to consider reforming its Section 106 system.

Section 106 legal agreements between developers and local authorities require the developer to pay money towards local infrastructure as a condition of building.

The aim is to avoid public services such as roads, education and healthcare being overwhelmed by new residents.

But, according to a report, councillors have raised "concerns that S106 contributions were not being spent and allocations of money were not put into community and social infrastructure for existing and new development within North Herts".

Officers said "development is taking place without appropriate levels of community infrastructure".

The overview and scrutiny committee agreed in September to investigate the effectiveness of the payments and how the money is spent.

Switching to a new mechanism, known as a Community Infrastructure (CIL), is one option that could be taken up.

At last week's meeting, Cllr Ralph Muncer, leader of the Conservative group, said: "It's important that communities are able to have appropriate infrastructure in place to support … development and mitigate the negative impacts of that development.

"It's a concern that's been identified that Section 106 funding and the regime which currently exists in North Hertfordshire isn't necessarily delivering those benefits which residents ought to see from developments which are brought forward."

He suggested the current system doesn't do enough to ensure money is spent close to developments.

Cllr Muncer, who offered to dig into the matter ahead of the new group being created, said: "If there is a development which takes place in Codicote, for example, it is – I would argue – only right that a large proportion of the Section 106 funding gained from that development is spent in Codicote.

"It's no use it being spent in Royston, for example, where it's not going to have any impact on the residents who are impacted by the development itself and are going to face those impacts."

Chair of the council's planning committee, Cllr Elizabeth Dennis, said the group should also look at Section 106 contributions payable to Hertfordshire County Council and "whether or not those contributions are being used as they were intended from the agreements".

Cllr Muncer confirmed the county council would be consulted as a stakeholder, particularly on highways and education.

Currently, North Herts Council makes Section 106 agreements with the developers of major projects in the area on a case-by-case basis.

If a CIL is introduced, it could mean a more formulaic approach to determining how much developers are required to pay to the council. It is likely that a greater percentage of developments would be required to pay a contribution.

Other councils in Hertfordshire already use CIL funding, which has funded projects including artificial football pitches, a bus route and hireable electric bicycles.

Cllr Daniel Wright-Mason said he is a "big fan" of the proposed group's aims, and added that he hoped it could consider the "achievable" goal of improving "communication with residents about how Section 106 money is spent".

Responding, Cllr Muncer said it is "really important that we get that community engagement from local residents, parish councils and different other organisations".

The aim is for the group's work to be finished in time to feed into the council's review of the Local Plan – the blueprint for future development in the area.

Members of the new group will be appointed soon, and it will report back to full council at a later date.