Social infrastructure evidence for sixty new flats
Contributions on a sixty-flat scheme are decided by child yield, capacity evidence and regulation 122. Here is what the assessment has to quantify and where the council's figures usually give way.
A scheme of around sixty flats will attract requests for contributions towards school places, primary healthcare, open space, play space and sometimes libraries or community halls. Social infrastructure evidence for flats is mostly arithmetic. The figures that decide how much you pay are the child yield applied to your unit mix, the capacity position at the schools and surgeries serving the site, and whether each request survives the three tests in regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010. All three are auditable, and on a sixty-unit scheme the difference between accepting the council's first calculation and checking it can run into six figures.
The work usually sits in a short standalone document, sometimes called a social infrastructure statement, sometimes folded into the planning statement. Either way it has to do more than agree with the authority.
What the assessment has to quantify
The document answers one question: how many additional people will live here, and what services will they use. Everything else follows from that.
Start with the consented or proposed unit mix by bedroom count, because yield factors are almost always expressed per dwelling by size. Then set out the occupancy assumption, the resulting population, the child population split by phase of education, and the demand for each service type. A Social Infrastructure Assessment draft does this in a fixed order so that an officer can follow the chain from unit mix to pounds without rebuilding it.
Two things are worth separating early. Demand is what your residents will generate. Need for a contribution is what arises only where existing capacity cannot absorb that demand. Authorities sometimes conflate the two and ask for money against a school that has spare places for the next decade.
Child yield and school places
Child yield factors are published by each local authority as part of its school place planning, and they vary by district, unit size and tenure. Flats generate fewer children than houses of the same bedroom count, and affordable rented flats generally generate more than market flats. If the council applies a single blended factor to your whole scheme, ask which evidence base it came from and when it was last refreshed.
The Department for Education's guidance on securing developer contributions for education sets out the approach most authorities follow: convert dwellings into pupil places using local yield factors, compare that against forecast capacity in the relevant planning area, and apply the current cost multiplier per place. The cost multipliers are revised, so always work from the live version rather than a figure quoted in an old section 106 agreement.
Three questions decide most school contribution disputes.
- Is the yield factor specific to flats, or borrowed from a house-based dataset?
- Does the capacity forecast already include places funded by other committed development or by a basic need allocation?
- Is the planning area used for the forecast the one that actually serves the site, or a wider district average?
A sixty-flat scheme in a city centre with a one and two-bedroom dominated mix may generate a primary yield in the low single figures. That is a real answer, and it is worth evidencing properly rather than conceding a round sum.
Primary healthcare capacity
Health contributions are requested by the integrated care board rather than the council, and the council passes the request on. The usual method converts your population into registered patients, compares that against the floorspace and list size of practices within a walking or short driving distance, and prices any shortfall against a cost per square metre of clinical space.
The weak point is normally the capacity evidence. A request should identify the named practices serving the site, their current list sizes, and the floorspace position. Where that detail is missing, the request is a formula output rather than a demonstrated need, and regulation 122 bites.
Ask also whether the shortfall being priced is attributable to your residents or to an existing deficit. Development is not required to remedy a pre-existing gap, and an inspector will say so. A Health Impact Assessment is a different document with a different job, and on a scheme of this size it is usually only required where the local plan or a supplementary planning document says so.
Community, library and open space demand
Library and community facility contributions tend to be per-head sums drawn from a supplementary planning document. They are easier to resist where the authority cannot show a capacity constraint, and harder where the local plan carries an explicit standard with an adopted cost basis.
Open space and play space are more structured, because the standards are usually quantitative. Most authorities set a provision standard in hectares or square metres per thousand population, assess the existing deficiency in the ward or settlement, and then seek either on-site provision or a commuted sum. An Open Space Assessment sets out the catchment audit, and a play space calculation sits alongside it.
In London, the play space figure flows from Policy S4 of the London Plan 2021, which expects 10 m² of play space per child, with the child population derived from the Greater London Authority's population yield calculator. Outside London the standard is whatever the adopted plan says, and the numbers differ widely between neighbouring authorities. Where the scheme includes a communal roof terrace or podium garden, the design needs to show which age group each area serves before it counts towards the standard. A Play Space Assessment is the document that reconciles the required area with the areas actually delivered.
| Service | Who sets the standard | What the evidence must show |
|---|---|---|
| School places | Local education authority | Yield factors for flats, forecast capacity in the planning area |
| Primary healthcare | Integrated care board | Named practices, list sizes, floorspace shortfall |
| Open space | Adopted local plan or SPD | Provision standard, ward-level deficiency, catchment |
| Play space | Local plan, London Plan Policy S4 in London | Child population, usable area by age group |
| Libraries and community space | Supplementary planning document | Capacity constraint, adopted cost basis |
Turning demand into contributions
Each request has to pass all three limbs of regulation 122: necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms, directly related to the development, and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind. The pooling restriction that used to limit authorities to five obligations per infrastructure project was removed in September 2019, so the previous argument about pooled contributions is no longer available.
The practical sequence on a sixty-unit scheme looks like this.
- Agree the unit mix and occupancy assumptions in writing with the case officer before the heads of terms are drafted.
- Obtain the calculation sheet behind each request, not just the total.
- Check each figure against the published yield factors, cost multipliers and provision standards.
- Where on-site provision is possible, price it against the commuted sum and propose the lower-cost deliverable option.
- Record agreed figures in the heads of terms with the index and base date stated.
Indexation matters more than most applicants expect. A contribution indexed from a base date two years before the agreement is signed, using an index that has moved sharply, can arrive materially higher than the figure discussed at committee.
Illustrative example: a scheme of sixty flats, mostly one and two-bedroom, generates a primary yield of around four pupils and a secondary yield lower again. The education request arrives priced on a blended yield factor drawn from a dataset dominated by houses. Re-running the calculation on the authority's own flat-specific factors reduces the request by roughly half, and the remainder is accepted. The numbers here are illustrative. The method is the point.
Testing the authority's figures
Where a request looks wrong, deal with it through evidence and not objection in principle. Ask for the source document, the version date and the capacity forecast. Where the authority relies on a supplementary planning document, check that it was adopted after consultation and that it is still being applied as written.
If the scheme is viability constrained, the contribution package belongs in the appraisal rather than in a separate argument, and the approach to sensitivity testing in a viability appraisal determines how much weight the figures carry. But viability and regulation 122 are separate arguments. A request that fails the statutory tests should be removed because it fails them, whether or not the scheme can afford it.
Keep the audit trail. Every figure in the document should name its source and its date, because the officer report will reproduce your numbers if they are checkable, and will reproduce the authority's if they are not.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site is likely to need, including the social infrastructure and open space evidence for a scheme of this scale.
This is general guidance and not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
Do flats generate fewer school places than houses?
Generally yes. Most local authorities publish pupil yield factors broken down by dwelling size and type, and flats of a given bedroom count yield fewer children than houses of the same size. Tenure also matters, with affordable rented units usually yielding more than market units. Ask the authority which dataset its factor came from and whether it is flat specific.
Can a council ask for a contribution to a school that has spare places?
Not safely. Regulation 122 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 requires an obligation to be necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms. If the forecast shows capacity in the relevant planning area absorbing your pupils, the request is hard to justify and an inspector may strike it out on appeal.
Who asks for the healthcare contribution?
The integrated care board makes the request and the local planning authority passes it on and secures it through the section 106 agreement. The request should name the practices serving the site, give their list sizes and show the floorspace shortfall attributable to your residents rather than to an existing deficit in the area.
How much play space does a block of flats need?
Outside London it is whatever the adopted local plan standard says, which varies between neighbouring authorities. In London, Policy S4 of the London Plan 2021 expects 10 m2 of play space per child, with the child population derived from the Greater London Authority's population yield calculator and areas assigned by age group.
Does the pooling restriction still limit section 106 contributions?
No. The restriction that limited authorities to five planning obligations towards a single infrastructure project was removed in September 2019. Authorities can now pool freely, so arguments about the number of prior contributions no longer work. The regulation 122 tests still apply to every individual request.
Should the contribution package go in the viability appraisal?
Yes, where the scheme is viability constrained the full package belongs in the appraisal with the indexation assumptions stated. Keep the two arguments separate though. A request that fails the regulation 122 tests should be removed because it fails them, not because the scheme cannot afford it.
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.