Regulation 19 Rutland Local Plan

Chapter 11 – Infrastructure and Delivery Comment

It is important that growth proposals are supported by appropriate new and upgraded infrastructure to ensure the best possible impact on the social, economic and environmental well-being of the County. The effectiveness of the growth strategy in this Local Plan is dependent on the delivery of the necessary infrastructure in the right location and at the right time.

Infrastructure can be separated into three main categories:

• physical infrastructure (such as highways, utilities and digital connectivity and public realm improvements);
• community infrastructure (such as schools, healthcare, adult social services, and cultural facilities); and
• green and blue infrastructure (such as play spaces, natural and semi-natural open space, and sports pitches, as well as other essential infrastructure such as flood mitigation.

Rutland County Council has adopted a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) which will be used to fund critical infrastructure improvements. Where appropriate, on-site Section 106 contributions for specific on-site infrastructure may also be required. Contributions payable by CIL and Section 106 are in addition to any normal development costs payable by developers to any utility company or other statutory authority. Utility companies and some service providers have their own funding mechanisms to improve services to address increased need from development. The Council will continue to work with partners to ensure that infrastructure is in place at the right time to support the growth set out in this Local Plan.

What will the policy do?

Policy INF1 provides clarity about when the Council will collect Community Infrastructure levy and /or use S106 obligations to secure infrastructure improvements for development proposals. The policy also reflects the national policy approach that development viability will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Rutland's Infrastructure Priorities

The Council has identified the following strategic priorities for infrastructure provision or improvements within the County to deliver and support the growth set out in this Local Plan:

• A Special Place
  Investment in highways, heritage and Culture and public realm. Community grant scheme to support community proposals
• Sustainable Lives
  Investment in waste and recycling services and facilities and the implementation of the Bus Services Improvement Plan
• Healthy and Well
  Investment in improvements and increased health provision and in adult social care to support the care and independence of County's residents
• A county for everyone
  Investment in the provision of services for early years, children, and young people and promoting the delivery of affordable housing. Work with Police and Fire and Rescue services to invest in ensuring Rutland remains safe and welcoming.
• A Modern and Effective Council
  Investment in optimising the use of assets to provide value for money and support future service delivery and the County's strategic priorities

These priorities will be used by the Council to determine how CIL funds are spent. It is important to recognise that developer contributions alone will not meet the full costs of necessary infrastructure improvements. Therefore, additional funding sources and mechanisms will need to be identified.

Why is this policy needed?

One of the core planning principles set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is that planning should drive and support sustainable economic development, and this includes the delivery of infrastructure. Local Plans should include strategic policies for the provision of transport infrastructure, telecommunications, waste management, water supply, wastewater, and flood risk. The Council should work with other authorities and infrastructure and service providers to assess the quality and capacity of this infrastructure and take account of the need for strategic infrastructure within their areas.

The policies and proposals in the Local Plan are key to the delivery of the local plan vision. However, it is important to recognise that other factors and processes will also influence this, including other organisation's plans and strategies and investment by the public, private and voluntary sectors, individuals, and businesses. Ultimately, it is the investment of individuals, developers, businesses, residents, and other organisation's which deliver new development, economic growth and implement many of the Local Plan's policies. It is therefore important that the Local Plan provides clarity about what is required to deliver growth in a way which benefits the wider community.

The term 'infrastructure' in its broadest sense means any service or facility that supports Rutland and its population. It includes, but is not restricted to the following:

• transport: highways, rail, bus, cycling, and pedestrian;
• education: nursery and pre‐school, primary, secondary, further, higher, and adult education;
• energy: gas and electricity generation and provision;
• water: supply, wastewater and surface water drainage, flood defences and flood risk management;
• information and communications technology: telecommunications, broadband and cable television;
• health: hospitals, health centres/GP surgeries, dental practices, pharmacies and hospices;
• green/blue infrastructure and open space: amenity green space; children's play areas, outdoor sports playing pitches; parks and gardens; natural and semi natural green space; and allotments;
• emergency services: police, fire service and ambulance;
• community services: libraries and community centres;
• waste management: refuse collection and disposal, recycling.

The draft Local Plan has been prepared alongside an Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP). The IDP is the first stage in the process of planning for infrastructure and identifies the infrastructure required to sustainably meet the overall level of growth proposed in the Local Plan over the plan period. The IDP gives a broad overview of the way certain infrastructure is planned and the agencies involved in its delivery and identifies specific infrastructure projects together with costings and likely funding mechanisms which may be required to support the development proposed within this plan, in particular those that are critical to delivering the growth proposed in the Local Plan.

The detailed IDP includes an infrastructure list identifying the key infrastructure needed to support individual sites and growth proposals. This will be used by the Council to consider the prioritisation of funding from CIL towards critical and essential infrastructure.

The infrastructure list identifies infrastructure requirements and the timescales for delivery, together with an indication of the estimated costs, sources of funding and delivery partners. The Council recognises that resources are limited and there may be a need to prioritise funding and delivery of infrastructure over the plan period. By prioritising infrastructure requirements, it is possible to identify where fundamental constraints to growth and viability are, which may require early "pump priming", therefore preventing development being unduly stifled.

A variety of agencies are responsible for delivering infrastructure, and work is underway by service providers to identify future requirements and deliver infrastructure requirements to enable development over the plan period. The Local Plan policy and the IDP focus on infrastructure provision, which is critical to delivering the new Local Plan, in particular those which may require public funding or developer contribution.

Consultation with utility and service providers responsible for the delivery of infrastructure and other services has been ongoing through the preparation of the Local Plan. Service providers usually have their own future plans and in general these are for different timeframes to the Local Plan, often only covering 3 to 5 years ahead. Where they are available these plans have provided information on currently known planned infrastructure improvements and likely new infrastructure needed to support the delivery of level of growth proposed. The Council will continue to engage with service providers to update the evidence base on infrastructure and additional requirements as they become known.

The IDP provides the opportunity to appropriately align the work of partner organisations and service providers such as water and energy provision by utility companies, the County Council's own highways, education, and social services and healthcare provision by NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICB) for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and for Lincolnshire. The Council and partners will work with Local Enterprise Partnerships and Homes England to secure both direct funding and recoverable finance for infrastructure projects where appropriate. We will also work with infrastructure and service providers to align their strategies and investment plans to the Local Plan.

The Council will continue to work with all its partners involved in the delivery of development and infrastructure to establish a shared understanding of investment priorities and ensure that the risk to delivery is mitigated or addressed at an early stage.

The overall context for public funding in recent years has been one of reducing budgets and an increased reliance on competitive funding and the private sector to deliver services and new infrastructure. At the same time, the ability of development to contribute to infrastructure can be limited by viability constraints. The viability of development types has been considered in light of all of the policy requirements included in the draft Local Plan, through a Whole Plan Viability Study 2023.

The Whole Plan Viability Study considers the viability of a range of types of development proposals included in the plan alongside the cumulative impact of the policies requirements included in the Local Plan together with CIL and an allowance for onsite S106 requirements. Its purpose is to ensure that cumulatively, the policy requirements together with CIL and S106 do not jeopardise the viability of development and therefore put the strategy at risk of being delivered.

Green and blue infrastructure and waste management infrastructure are covered by separate policies within this plan. The Council has prepared a Blue and Green Infrastructure Strategy (2023), which deals with the provision of these types of infrastructure in more detail.

The provision of infrastructure, particularly that which involves the movement of people, vehicles, or water across the County and its administrative boundaries, have been discussed through the duty to cooperate with neighbouring and County authorities. These discussions will actively continue to ensure that the impact of growth is appropriately mitigated.

The capacity of existing infrastructure and the ability of that infrastructure either with or without new or expanded facilities to accommodate development has formed a fundamental part of developing the spatial strategy and distribution of development in this Local Plan.

Community Infrastructure Levy and Developer Contributions

In March 2016 the Council adopted a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to help meet the needs for additional community infrastructure.

CIL payments are required for the four categories of development for which it is deemed viable in Rutland, as listed below. The Council will calculate the amount of CIL payable ("chargeable amount") in respect of a chargeable development in accordance with Schedule 1 of the CIL regulations 2010 (as amended). This means that payments are determined by the net increase in floor space multiplied by the CIL rate which is index linked from the base rate set on 1st March 2016 as follows: The CIL Charging schedule came into force on 1st March 2016.

Table 7

* The index used is the National All-in Tender Price published by the Build Cost Information Service (BCIS) on 1 November for the preceding calendar year. From 1 January 2020, the index is the RICS CIL Index published on or around 1 November each year to apply 1 January the following year. The CIL rates will be index linked from the base year (March 2016) to the date when permission is granted.
** Residential development includes new dwellings and annexes of any size and domestic extensions with a floorspace of 100m2 or greater.

Other developments are not deemed viable to pay CIL. The CIL regulations determine that development which is self-build (including housing, residential annexes and house extensions) may be eligible for exemption from CIL subject to the required forms being submitted and the conditional criteria being met. The CIL regulations also determine that most forms of social housing/affordable homes are also able to claim relief from CIL. There are other forms of residential development that the County Council has determined to be not sufficiently viable in Rutland to pay CIL. This means that residential care homes and other residential institutions do not pay CIL.

Full details of the Council's CIL Charging Schedule can be viewed on the Council's website.

In addition to CIL, the Council has a need to secure affordable housing. Developer contributions are required to help deliver the need in Rutland for affordable housing. The Council's affordable housing policy and supporting text is set out in Policy H7. Further supporting detail is set out in a Planning Obligations Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) adopted in January 2016.

The Planning Obligations SPD also addresses the need for site specific infrastructure or other planning obligations to be applied where such a requirement accords with national policy tests on necessity (for example, without which planning permission should not be granted). The SPD will need to be reviewed once the Local Plan has been adopted.

Site specific development principles have been included in Local Plan for each allocated site (see Policies H1, H2 and E1 in the Housing and Employment chapters). These requirements have been derived from the site assessment process, input from specialist advisers and where applicable from consultation. It is assumed that the development principles for allocated sites will be provided on site as part of the normal development costs.

Supporting Evidence

Infrastructure Delivery Plan 2024
Local Waste Management Needs Assessment (August 2023)
Water Cycle Study 2023
Whole Plan Viability Assessment (October 2023)
Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy (July 2023)
Rutland health inequalities plan
Staying healthy partnership plan