Planning obligations: Section 106

A Section 106 (S106) is a legal agreement between an applicant seeking planning permission and the local planning authority, to help balance the impact of a new home on the local community and infrastructure.

If your development is liable for S106, this will be decided during the assessment of your application. We will discuss both financial and non-financial obligations with you and all relevant parties. You do not have to submit anything with your application, but you should be aware that S106 may apply.

Read more about S106 agreements (also known as planning obligations).

S106 agreements also address policy issues like carbon offsetting contributions, which are not part of the community infrastructure levy (CIL).

A S106 secures contributions and obligations. We register them as charges with the Land Registry until we discharge them. 

You can view S106 agreements and CILs in our public facing module (PFM).

A supplementary planning document (SPD) (PDF, 3.2MB) explains how we'll use S106 and CIL in the southern part of the Old Kent Road opportunity area. It guides our approach to negotiating S106 agreements for transport infrastructure.

Allocating S106 funding

The flowchart shows what happens when collecting S106 contributions. It also shows how the money is spent. In summary:

1. Project managers in our regeneration team apply for funding for their projects.
2. Our S106 and CIL team review the application to make sure it complies with our spending policies.
3. The S106 and CIL team write a report with all the information about the project.
4. If the request is for under £100,000, then our director of planning and growth can release the money.
5. If a request exceeds £100,000, our planning committee must approve it.
6. Each year, we report back on the money spent in our infrastructure funding statement.

Making financial contributions

Various stages of development trigger S106 payments. When this happens, it is the job of the developer, the owner or their agent to tell our S106 team. If you do not do this you may get a late payment fine.

Once we know you want to make a payment, we will adjust the figure to take account of inflation and give you an invoice.

After you meet all requirements, we will give you a confirmation letter. We will ask the Land Registry to remove any charge on the land.

Non-financial obligations

To discharge a non-financial obligation relating to a development, complete an application form. Send it to planning.applications@southwark.gov.uk. You should also tell the S106 team you've done this, using the contact us form.

Read our guidance note for more information.

Varying a S106 agreement

Sometimes you might need to vary a S106 agreement. Complete an application form and send it to planning.applications@southwark.gov.uk. You'll also need to redraft a deed of variation, and pay any associated costs.