Developer contributions in Northern Ireland without a levy

Northern Ireland has no infrastructure levy. There is no Community Infrastructure Levy, no charging schedule to look up and no standard rate per square metre, which means every penny of developer contributions northern ireland councils seek is negotiated, scheme by scheme, through a planning agreement under section 76 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011.

For a developer used to working in England that changes the appraisal in two ways. There is no fixed cost you can put in the budget at land acquisition stage, and there is no mechanism that collects money from small schemes automatically, so the whole burden falls on agreements attached to the schemes large enough to justify negotiating one.

Why there is no levy

The levy was never introduced in Northern Ireland. Planning transferred from the Department of the Environment to the 11 district councils in April 2015 under the 2011 Act, and the framework that came with it carried forward the planning agreement as the single mechanism for securing obligations.

The practical consequence is that infrastructure funding depends on what a council can negotiate at the point a permission is granted. That gives councils less certainty, and it gives developers more room, which is why the negotiation matters more here than a levy calculation ever does.

Planning agreements under the 2011 Act

Section 76 allows a person with an interest in land to enter into an agreement with the council to restrict development or use of the land, to require specified operations or activities, to require the land to be used in a specified way, or to require payments to be made. It is the direct counterpart of the English section 106, and it works the same way in practice: the agreement is entered into before or at the point the decision is issued, and the obligation binds successors in title.

Two mechanical points matter. Agreements are registered in the Statutory Charges Register, so a purchaser's solicitor will find them, and the 2011 Act contains provisions allowing an agreement to be modified or discharged, with a route to apply after a period has elapsed. Check the current provisions and the procedure before relying on a future modification, because that assumption underpins a lot of optimistic appraisals.

Where the Department for Infrastructure determines a regionally significant application, the agreement is with the Department rather than the council.

What councils actually ask for

There is no published schedule, so the answer comes from the local development plan, any supplementary guidance the council has issued, and the agreements already completed in that district. That last source is the most useful one and the least used. Agreements are public, so ask to see recent ones for comparable schemes before your first meeting.

Contributions commonly sought include open space, play provision and the future management of both, active travel links and road improvements, street and footway improvements near the site, landscape and biodiversity management, travel plan preparation and monitoring, and affordable housing where the plan policy requires it. Community facilities and education contributions appear less consistently and depend on the council and the consultee position.

Wastewater sits slightly apart. Where capacity is the constraint, the answer is often a requisition of infrastructure from Northern Ireland Water funded by the developer rather than a contribution to the council, and that is a separate agreement on a separate timetable. It is the item most likely to stop a scheme outright, and the one to test before land is committed. Our note on wastewater capacity constraints covers how to check the position early.

The tests a contribution has to satisfy

England has a statutory test in the levy regulations that makes an obligation unlawful unless it is necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms, directly related to the development, and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind. Northern Ireland has no identical statutory provision, so the tests derive from planning policy and from the general principles that govern what a planning authority may lawfully require.

In substance councils apply the same three questions, and you should argue the case on that basis. A contribution that is not needed to make this development acceptable, that funds something unconnected with it, or that is disproportionate to its scale, is one to resist with reasoning rather than simply refuse.

Ask for the evidence. A request for a per-dwelling open space payment should be traceable to an identified deficiency, a costed project and a policy in the plan. Where it is traceable, pay it and move on. Where it is not, say so in writing early, because the argument is far easier before the case officer has written a report than after.

Negotiating and timing an agreement

The agreement has to be completed before the decision issues, and council legal teams are small. That combination is the single biggest cause of delay on major applications in Northern Ireland, and it is a delay you can partly control.

A sequence that works:

1. Raise obligations at pre-application and ask what the council will seek, in writing.
2. Submit draft heads of terms with the application rather than waiting to be asked.
3. Agree the principle of each obligation while the technical consultation runs.
4. Instruct solicitors to prepare the draft agreement before the committee date, not after.
5. Resolve title, mortgagee consent and any third party land issues in parallel, since those are what actually hold up completion.

Mortgagee consent deserves emphasis. Every party with an interest in the land has to join the agreement, and chasing a lender's consent after a committee resolution routinely adds weeks.

Budgeting without a schedule

Without a levy you are estimating. Build the estimate from three sources: the local development plan policies and any supplementary guidance, completed agreements for comparable schemes in the same district, and the consultee responses on similar applications, which show what the roads, water and education bodies have asked for recently.

Then carry a contingency, and carry it as a range rather than a point figure. A major scheme should also budget the council's legal costs, which the developer normally pays, and the cost of any monitoring fee attached to obligations that continue after completion.

Where a scheme is marginal, viability evidence can be used to argue for reduced obligations, though the approach differs from the English practice built around the national viability guidance. Set out the appraisal on the same principles and expect the council to test it.

Monitoring and enforcement after completion

Obligations continue after the development is finished. Open space transfers, management company arrangements, travel plan reporting and affordable housing nomination agreements all run for years, and the council enforces them as contractual obligations against the land.

Build the ongoing duties into the sales and management structure rather than leaving them with a project team that will be disbanded. The commonest failure is a management company set up at the end of the build with no funding mechanism for obligations the agreement placed on it.

For the policy framework that sits behind all of this, see our explainer on the SPPS and local development plans, and on the agreement mechanics in section 76 planning agreements.

Browse the 66 report types to scope the evidence base alongside the obligations. PlanScope's drafting is grounded in English policy, so a Northern Ireland submission needs the reviewer to substitute the correct framework. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with the council or a qualified professional before relying on it.