THURROCK Council is sitting on more than £12million in unspent contributions from developers, some of which could be lost, it has been confirmed.

The subject was discussed at a meeting this week of the council's Place overview and scrutiny committee when a report was submitted. It can be read in full via this link.

Council legal teams are said to be hurriedly looking of ways of retaining contributions from developers during the planning process before agreements expire.

Since 2005, Thurrock Council has received more than £49million in Section 106 contributions; and spent more than £42million.

A Section 106 (s106) agreement is a legal agreement between a local planning authority and a developer that outlines measures the developer must take to reduce the impact of their development on the local community.

The measures can take different forms, including a commitment to provision of social or affordable housing, payments to education or health providers or money directly to the authority to be used for local projects that it deems suitable.

The total funds currently available to Thurrock Council amount to more than £12.6 million of which almost £11 million is committed to schemes and £1.6 million is yet to be committed.

A planning review in 2023 found that "the lack of a strategic investment programme meant that the potential for development contributions via Section 106 agreements was being compromised".

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The review added: "Contributions received were being under-utilised. The unclear governance and decision-making around the funds and spending was also highlighted as a critical issue. "

In September last year, Cllr Lee Watson, who is the council cabinet's portfolio holder for good growth, reported on the s106 situation and acknowledged the council could have done better in the past.

She said: "One of my priorities was to get S106 into some sort of order so that we know what we've got and where it is, what is allocated and what is not."

In 2022, an exclusive Thurrock Nub News investigation highlighted the many millions of unspent s106 money Thurrock' administration had been sitting on.

Following the findings a new system of governance for s106 funds was set up. The Thurrock Strategic Infrastructure Board now monitors the funds.

The Place committee, which met on Wednesday (8 January), heard extra staff had been pulled in to deal with a backlog of s106 agreements.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Roy Jones, vice chairman of the committee and also chair of the Corringham, Fobbing and Homesteads Community Forum which has taken a lead role in pressing the council on s106 issues, said: "This is an ongoing process. We know that and it's great that we got started on this a few months ago.

"Quite a lot has been identified that needs to be checked. There were expiry dates on some of the money we got from developers. I like to think you have taken note of the most urgent ones rather than us pay any money back."

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In response, Cllr Watson said: "Every single agreement has gone through, pushing the priorities first on the ones that are going to expire.

"There are a lot of agreements that we have pushed back into legal to start looking at how we can use these agreements or how we can change the agreements or what needs to be done in order to keep hold of that money.

"There are quite a few there, we're not disputing that but we're trying to push that through really quickly."

On a national level recent research by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) found that more than a quarter of developer contributions are unused after more than five years.

The HBF has calculated that local authorities in England and Wales are sitting on more than £8 billion of infrastructure payments made by developers, including more than £6bn from Section 106 agreements. and almost £2bn raised through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

The responses show that, on average, councils hold £19m in unspent s106 infrastructure contributions.