School and surgery capacity tables in a social infrastructure report
The argument in a social infrastructure assessment lives in four tables: yield, existing capacity, forecast capacity and the residual shortfall your scheme actually causes.
A social infrastructure capacity assessment has one job: to show with published figures whether local schools and GP surgeries can absorb the people your scheme will house, and where they cannot, how much of that shortfall your development actually causes. Councils use it to justify a section 106 contribution, and inspectors use it to test whether the contribution is lawful. The prose around it barely matters. Four tables do the work: yield, existing capacity, forecast capacity at the year of occupation, and residual shortfall attributable to the application.
Get those four right and the report almost writes itself.
What the assessment has to establish
Take it in order. How many additional users does the development generate, split by age band and by service? What capacity exists now, and what does the authority already forecast for the years your units complete? And is the gap between those two figures caused by your scheme, or by growth the authority has already committed to?
That last question is where most assessments come apart. An education authority carrying a deficit forecast across a whole planning area will attribute it to whoever applies next, because nobody has separated the baseline from the increment. The answer is arithmetic rather than advocacy. List the committed development already inside the forecast, then show your marginal effect on top of it.
Regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 is the test your tables have to satisfy. An obligation must be necessary to make the development acceptable, directly related to the development, and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind. A table that cannot distinguish your pupils from everyone else's pupils fails the third limb, and a well briefed agent will say so at committee.
Pupil yield from the proposed unit mix
Pupil yield is a multiplier applied per dwelling, usually banded by bedroom count and sometimes by tenure, published by the education authority in its developer contributions methodology or in a supplementary planning document. Use that authority's figures. Rates from a neighbouring county are worth nothing in an examination of your obligation.
One-bedroom flats are normally excluded or discounted heavily. Larger family houses carry the highest rate. Affordable rented units often carry a higher yield than market units of the same size, which matters when the mix is still moving.
The arithmetic below is illustrative only, to show the shape of the table rather than any real authority's rates.
| Dwelling size | Market units | Affordable units | Primary yield each | Primary pupils |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bed | 18 | 6 | 0.00 | 0 |
| 2 bed | 40 | 14 | 0.10 | 5.4 |
| 3 bed | 46 | 12 | 0.24 | 13.9 |
| 4 bed or more | 22 | 2 | 0.30 | 7.2 |
Round only at the end, and show the unrounded product so the reviewer can follow it. Repeat the table for secondary and for post-16 where the authority's methodology covers those phases, and state the phase transfer assumption you have used.
Published capacity and forecast data sources
Three public sources carry most of the baseline. The Department for Education's school capacity collection gives net capacity and pupil numbers by school, returned annually by the authority itself. The school census gives roll figures. The authority's own place planning report or school organisation plan gives the forecast, and that is the document your tables must reconcile to.
Pull all three for the same academic year and say which year it is in the table header. Mixing a capacity figure from one return with a roll figure from another produces a surplus or deficit that nobody can reproduce, and a case officer who spots it will discount the whole chapter.
Where a school is undergoing expansion, record the approved scheme, its funding status and its expected delivery year as a separate line. Approved but unfunded capacity is not capacity. Say which it is.
Primary care and other health capacity
Health capacity is harder because the data is thinner. Work from registered list sizes and premises floorspace where the integrated care board or the local authority publishes them, and write to the board directly with your unit mix, your phasing and your expected population when they do not.
Population per surgery is a weak measure on its own because branch practices, list closures and premises constraints all move the answer. Ask the board a narrow question: does the practice or practices serving this site have capacity for the additional registered population, and if not, what premises intervention would create it? A dated letter with a dated reply is stronger evidence than any ratio you can calculate yourself.
Then extend the same method to the other services your authority charges for. Libraries, adult social care, waste receptacles, playing pitches and open space each have their own published standard, and each needs its own row. A Social Infrastructure Assessment that covers education and health only will come back with a request for the rest.
Catchments, travel distance and accessibility
Capacity in a school four miles away across a dual carriageway is not capacity for your residents. Map the schools and practices within the authority's own accessibility standard, note the walking and cycling routes, and identify where a safe route does not exist.
This is also the point where the transport evidence and the social infrastructure evidence have to agree. If your travel plan assumes children walk to a named primary school, that school needs to appear in the capacity table with spare places. Two documents contradicting each other on the same school is a gift to an objector.
Where accessibility varies between groups, the analysis overlaps with protected characteristics evidence in an EqIA, and cross-referencing saves repeating the catchment work twice.
Linking shortfall to a contribution
The formula is simple once the tables are sound: places required, minus places available in the forecast year, multiplied by the authority's published cost per place. Education authorities generally use the Department for Education's cost multipliers for new places, indexed. State the multiplier, the index, the base date and the source document.
Then apply the regulation 122 filter honestly. If the authority's forecast already shows a deficit before your scheme arrives, your contribution covers your increment and nothing more. If the levy already funds school places in that area, a section 106 contribution for the same places is double counting, and the authority's infrastructure funding statement will show which route it uses.
Set out the sum as a short numbered sequence rather than a paragraph, because that is how the section 106 heads of terms will be drafted.
- Pupil places generated by phase and school phase.
- Places available in the authority's forecast for the completion year.
- Residual places attributable to the development.
- Cost per place, with index and base date.
- Total contribution, with any phasing or trigger point.
Presenting tables an education authority will accept
Keep every table auditable. One source per column, named in the header. No blended figures. No numbers that appear in the summary but nowhere in the working. And put the correspondence in a dated appendix, because a reviewer asked to sign the assessment off will look for it first.
Two habits save the most time. Write the assumption note directly under each table instead of collecting assumptions at the back. Give every table a stable number so that the section 106 drafting can refer to it.
The same discipline applies across the wider evidence base, and the reasoning is close to what the supply chapter of an Employment Land Assessment needs: sourced baseline, stated increment, visible arithmetic. Neither document survives a challenge without it.
A capacity assessment also needs a named author who is prepared to stand behind the figures. Where the contribution runs to six figures, an authority will read the tables closely, and a Health Impact Assessment sitting alongside it should draw on the same population numbers rather than inventing its own.
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Frequently asked questions
Where do I get the pupil yield rate for my scheme?
From the education authority itself. Most county councils and unitary authorities publish a developer contributions methodology or supplementary planning document that sets yield per dwelling by bedroom count, and sometimes by tenure. Ask the education contributions team for the current version in writing, because the rates are reviewed periodically and an out of date multiplier is the quickest way to lose the argument at committee.
Does a social infrastructure assessment replace a Health Impact Assessment?
No. They answer different questions. A capacity assessment counts places and list sizes to support or resist a financial contribution. A Health Impact Assessment looks at how the design affects health outcomes, covering active travel, air quality, food environment and housing quality. Larger schemes in authorities with a health policy often need both, and the capacity tables feed the health document.
Can the council ask for a contribution if the school is already full?
Only for the part of the deficit your development causes. Regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 requires an obligation to be necessary, directly related to the development and fairly related in scale and kind. Pre-existing deficits caused by committed schemes or by demographic change are not yours to fund, so show the baseline forecast separately.
How do I evidence GP capacity without published surgery figures?
Use registered list sizes and premises floorspace where the integrated care board or the authority publishes them, and otherwise write to the board with your unit mix and ask for a position in writing. Record the enquiry and the response in an appendix. Where no figure comes back, say so plainly rather than estimating a capacity you cannot source.
Do contributions apply to a scheme paying the Community Infrastructure Levy?
They can, but not twice for the same item. Where an authority funds school places through its levy, a separate section 106 contribution for the same places would breach the pooling and double counting rules. Check the authority's regulation 123 style infrastructure list or its current infrastructure funding statement before budgeting for both.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.