Types of Planning Contributions

The Council may seek contributions relating to:

• Affordable Housing
• Blue and Green Infrastructure (including Parks and Open Space)
• Education
• Heath
• Transport (including sustainable travel)
• Libraries
• Waste Management

For matters relating to Education, Transport, Libraries and Waste Management, the Council will consult Nottinghamshire County Council and will follow the guidance set out in their Planning Obligations Strategy(Opens in New Window) (Opens in a New Window). In relation to health, the Council consults the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board who will assess the impact of a development and identify whether contributions are required towards health care. 

Affordable Housing

Affordable housing should be provided in accordance with Policy 15 of the Part 2 Local Plan.

Affordable housing provision should be made on site, unless there are exceptional circumstances to justify otherwise. The Part 2 Local Plan sets out when exceptional circumstances may apply. If a financial contribution is made, the Council will seek an amount which ensures that the equivalent level of affordable housing can be provided for off-site.  

Affordable properties should be integrated with market housing and should be of a similar size, type and external style as the market housing.

The appropriate mix of size, type, tenure and density will be assessed in liaison between the Council’s Housing and Planning departments, in accordance with the Council’s Housing Strategy and taking account of the latest relevant information, including the latest Housing Needs Assessment(.pdf)(external wbsite link)(Opens in New Window) (Opens in a New Window) and any subsequent update to this Study.

Blue and Green Infrastructure (including Parks and Open Space)

Financial contributions for open space may be sought from developments of 10 or more dwellings. Where it is practicable to do so, the preference should always be for open space to be provided as part of a new housing development. However, a number of factors influence the decision, whether:

• The development justifies separate provision. Only sites of 10+ dwellings are considered and on site open space is rarely justified for developments of less than 50 dwellings
• Development is located that could share an existing area of open space, with a contribution being paid to improve its facilities where appropriate.
• New areas of open space would be functional and maintainable size
• Priorities are identified in the Green Infrastructure Strategy (section 5.1.3 Amenity Greenspaces: Priority sites for improvements).
• There is a particular deficiency of existing open space in the area.
• There are special landscape features (e.g. mature trees) which should be retained as part of open space on a site.
• Housing proposed is likely to generate a need for a particular open space facility (e.g. a play area for family housing development).
• The developer or the relevant Parish/Town Council indicate a preference for on-site provision or off-site improvement.

The need for the provision and maintenance of playing pitches, and associated developer contributions, will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, using evidence from the Playing Pitch Strategy(.pdf)(9.2MB)(Opens in New Window) (Opens in a New Window) (PPS, January 2017), the Play Strategy(.pdf)(2.2MB)(Opens in New Window) (Opens in a New Window), the Green Infrastructure Strategy (GIS, July 2016) and the Greater Nottingham Blue and Green Infrastructure Strategy(.pdf)(external website link)(Opens in New Window) (Opens in a New Window) (January, 2022).

In smaller developments the improvement of existing facilities will be more relevant than the provision of new facilities; in larger developments on-site provision may be appropriate. Broxtowe Borough Council’s Green Spaces Strategy established a green space standard for the assessment of how green space serves different catchment areas within the borough. It aims to ensure that provision of facilities is adequately served for the local communities within the borough. The need for contributions for these and other types of green space will be assessed in accordance with the Broxtowe Green Space Standard (see below).

Detailed below are the revised rates for Capital and Maintenance Contributions (updated annually). The figures and methodology were originally adopted at Cabinet on 29 July 2014.  The current figures were updated in July 2023 CPI (Consumer Price Index):