In a recent appeal decision in Worcestershire, a Planning Inspector agreed with the appellant that the health care request should be rejected.

In the decision made on 4 November 2022 allowing an appeal for 29 dwellings in Evesham, Worcestershire, the local Clinical Commissioning Group's (CCG) Section 106 request was rejected, to mitigate the impact of the proposed development.

The Planning Inspector identified a lack of information on the capacity of the existing facilities in the area. Whilst accepting the additional population would need to access primary healthcare facilities locally, the lack of evidence demonstrated that the new population would require an increase in the capacity of these service, resulting in the request being rejected. The Inspector identified that the contribution would not be fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development, and there was no certainty the contribution would be necessary in order to make the development acceptable in planning terms.

The appeal decision also highlighted that reliance should not be placed on previous decisions where requests were accepted when the evidence was not tested.

When preparing evidence to support health care developer contribution requests, it is important to ensure that it carefully considers the three tests set out in regulations. These are:

a planning obligation may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is—

• 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.

Our Planning, Regeneration + Infrastructure team has experience of working with CCGs, NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards in England, helping them prepare robust evidence bases to secure Section 106 contributions from new development. This includes understanding the capacity of existing facilities and demonstrating that it is necessary for the impacts of new development to be mitigated.

Please contact Alex Roberts (Director - Planning Consultancy) or Antony Harding (Director - Planning Consultancy) for more information.