Planning obligations (Section 106)
Read what legal requirements we follow to allow planning permission to be granted for development proposals.
Published: 23 December 2020
Last updated: 21 May 2021
Planning obligations (sometimes known as Section 106 requirements) are legal agreements that are used by us to allow, in appropriate circumstances, planning permission to be granted for development proposals that might have otherwise been considered unacceptable in planning terms.
To lessen the impact of a development, planning obligations are used to secure affordable housing and other measures. These obligations are secured through a legal agreement or unilateral undertaking.
Please note this guidance remains in effect although parts of it have been superseded by the Community Infrastructure Levy regulations at GOV.UK. The SPG below refers to policies which predate the extant policy framework (consisting of Westminster’s City Plan 2016 and saved UDP policies). The City Plan 2019-2040 was adopted in 21 April 2021.
The council is therefore currently preparing new guidance to support the new City Plan 2019-2040, as set out in our Local Development Scheme.
Our Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) on Planning Obligations was adopted in 2008:
SPGs do not have the same status as the policies within the Westminster's Development Plan.
Our carbon offset fund guidance provides some background to Westminster’s carbon offset fund, outlining the process for collecting carbon offset funds and the council's criteria for allocating funds to local carbon saving projects, in accordance with Greater London Authority (GLA) guidance and Westminster’s carbon reduction targets. See the guidance:
