Infrastructure Funding Statement 2024 to 2025 - Introduction

The IFS provides a summary of planning obligations (also known as S106 agreements or developer contributions) secured by us from new developments towards infrastructure, over a particular period. This statement is updated and published annually to reflect the summary of obligations and agreements for each monitoring period. The monitoring period runs from 1 April to 31 March. The IFS must be published by 31 December each year.

Planning obligations are legal agreements entered into with developers and landowners to mitigate the impacts of a development proposal through a grant of planning permission to make it acceptable in planning terms. S106 agreements are legal agreements between developers and the local council linked to planning permissions. This is the main way we, the council, secure developer contributions.

S106 agreements are needed when a development will have impacts on the local area that cannot be moderated by means of conditions attached to a planning decision. For example, a new residential development can place extra pressure on the social, physical and/or economic infrastructure which already exists in a certain area. A planning obligation will aim to balance the pressure created by the new development with improvements to the surrounding area ensuring that, where possible, the development would make a positive contribution to the local area and community.

Planning obligations must meet the following legal tests to be required:

• necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms
• directly related to the development; and
• fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development.

Local authorities can, if appropriate, decide to set a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for their area which is a fixed charge levied on new development to fund required infrastructure.

CIL can be used alongside S106 agreements and planning conditions to seek contributions from developers for infrastructure. However, at the present time we don't operate CIL, or intend to implement CIL, therefore the IFS for Dover will be reporting on S106 agreements only.

More information about developer obligations and how they are calculated and allocated at Dover can be found here in our FAQs.

• Read our FAQs on delivering infrastructure through planning obligations (opens in new tab)
• For further information see the legislation governing planning obligations (opens in new tab)

This Infrastructure Statement (IFS) covers the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 and includes:

• Chapter 1: New S106 agreements
• Chapter 2: S106 opening balance and contributions
• Chapter 3: S106 expenditure
• Chapter 4: S106 closing balance
• Chapter 5: S106 non-financial obligations
• Chapter 6: Future spending priorities
• Chapter 7: Estimated future income from signed S106 agreements
• Chapter 8: Strategic development sites

Web based IFS with Power BI dashboards

In previous years, the IFS has been produced as a word document, which has increased in length, as the data has become more complex and detailed.

As part of our continuous improvements to make the IFS more accessible and interactive, all the Section 106 agreements and transactions have been migrated across into a Microsoft application called Power BI.

The data is presented in real-time dashboards, using charts and interactive filters, allowing you to fully engage with the contents of the report and ask questions about S106 contributions secured, received and held across developments you are interested in.

The policy team continues to work closely with the relevant internal departments in relation to project delivery such as housing, open space, communities and major projects teams. The introduction of Power BI dashboards has made the sharing of information simpler and easy to access.

This year’s IFS for 2024 to 2025 is presented as pages, each covering a chapter of the IFS. Each page includes a combination of a dashboard, data tables and commentary to provide context to the financial data reported on.

This data can also be viewed using the S106 2024 to 2025 transactions and future income spreadsheet below, which can be downloaded and filtered.

Power BI navigation tips

To look at contributions secured, received and spent from specific or a range of agreements and developments, you can use the filters on each dashboard, for example:

• if you are interested in S106 contributions secured or received from developments in a specific parish, you can click on the 'parish filter' and select one or more areas. The information will then appear in the table and pie chart.
• to look further into the types of infrastructure, use the 'infrastructure type' filter or click on the infrastructure type on the pie chart
• to reset the filters, hover over the title of each filter and select the eraser icon.

Types of legal agreements

• S106 – Section 106 agreement
• UU – Unilateral Undertaking
• DoV – Deed of Variation

Acronyms

• IFS – Infrastructure Funding Statement
• CIL – Community Infrastructure Levy
• DDC – Dover District Council
• KCC – Kent County Council
• NHS/ICB – National Health Service/ Integrated Commissioning Board
• SPA/SAMMS – Special Protection Area/Strategic Access Management and Monitoring Strategy

These figures include contributions that have been received through a S106 agreement and without, using the online payment forms.

In accordance with government guidance, the 2024- 2025 IFS data is also produced as CSV files (which are like Excel spreadsheets) but we would recommend using the S106 2024-2025 transactions and future income spreadsheet below for viewing the data.

This report contains information on all infrastructure types secured and collected by us. These fall into four categories:

Towards council delivered infrastructure

• affordable housing
• sports facilities
• open spaces, play areas and green infrastructure
• strategic transport infrastructure - strategic highways tariff
• Thanet Coast and Sandwich Bay Mitigation Strategy

Towards KCC delivered infrastructure

• health and social care
• community facilities (such as libraries, children’s and youth services, community buildings)
• education, adult and SEN education - reporting on school places delivered in the district will be completed by the local education authority Kent County Council (KCC). KCC is required to record all infrastructure funding received from local planning authorities within the county, which is reported through their own Infrastructure Funding Statement (opens in new tab) . This outlines how planning obligations received from developments in the district are delivered by them as the provider. All financial contributions collected by us in relation to education are transferred to KCC for this purpose.

Towards NHS/ICB requirements

• primary care facilities

Towards parish/town council delivered infrastructure

• open spaces, play areas
• sports facilities
• community facilities

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) regulations (as amended on 1 September 2019) require local authorities to publish a statement at least once a year that provides the following information:

• a report about planning obligations, in relation to the reported year, which includes matters specified within the regulations. This is referred to as the Section 106 Report.
• a statement of the infrastructure projects or types of infrastructure which the charging authority intends will be, or may be, wholly or partly funded by CIL
• a report about CIL, in relation to the previous financial year, which includes matters specified within the regulations.

The relevant legislation requires the following to be reported in the S106 Report:

• the total amount of money to be provided under any planning obligations which were entered into during the reported year
• the total amount of money under any planning obligations which was received during the reported year
• the total amount of money under any planning obligations which was received before the reported year which has not been allocated by the authority
• summary details of any non-monetary contributions to be provided under planning obligations which were entered into during the reported year, including details:
  • in relation to affordable housing, the total number of units which will be provided
  • in relation to educational facilities, the number of school places for pupils which will be provided, and the category of school at which they will be provided
  • the total amount of money (received under any planning obligations) which was allocated but not spent during the reported year for funding infrastructure
  • the total amount of money (received under any planning obligations) which was spent by the authority (including transferring it to another person to spend)
  • in relation to money (received under planning obligations) which was allocated by the authority but not spent during the reported year, summary details of the items of infrastructure on which the money has been allocated, and the amount of money allocated to each item.

In relation to money (received under planning obligations) which was spent by the authority during the reported year (including transferring it to another person to spend), summary details of:

• the items of infrastructure on which that money (received under planning obligations) was spent, and the amount spent on each item
• the amount of money (received under planning obligations) spent on repaying money borrowed, including any interest, with details of the items of infrastructure which that money was used to provide (wholly or in part)
• the amount of money (received under planning obligations) spent in respect of monitoring (including reporting under regulation 121A) in relation to the delivery of planning obligations
• the total amount of money (received under any planning obligations) during any year which was retained at the end of the reported year, and where any of the retained money has been allocated for the purposes of longer-term maintenance (commuted sums), also identify separately the total amount of commuted sums held.

To see previous Infrastructure Funding Statements, see our infrastructure delivery page below.

• Infrastructure delivery