New charges for developers approved in Lichfield

The new legal requirement means that all developments must now deliver at least a 10% biodiversity net gain. To ensure compliance over time, the council must monitor these contributions for a minimum of 30 years — a process that requires significant officer time.

A report to cabinet members warned that not implementing a monitoring fee would be “detrimental” to the council’s finances, especially as the volume of cases is expected to rise in future years. The charges are intended to cover the long-term cost of officer resources.

The council previously had a policy of charging developers a fee for monitoring Section 106 (S106) contributions, but this fell away in recent years. Now, plans are in place to reintroduce the charges more widely.

Depending on the size and technical complexity of a development, the monitoring fee could be as high as £19,397.24. The council has five site categories ranging from very small (under one hectare) to large-scale sites of more than 30 hectares, which would require a bespoke fee to be agreed with the developer.

Councillor Alex Farrell, cabinet member for housing and local plan said: “Last year the mandatory introduction of biodiversity net gain basically as a result with section 106 agreements if biodiversity net gain is a part of that agreement there’s usually a minimum period of 30 years to monitor biodiversity net gain habitats. As a result that’s quite an administrative burden on the council monitoring for 30 years.”