A question that comes up time and time again, is do all the landowners need to be a party to an S106 agreement or Unilateral UU?
The answer is now found in the case R (McLaren) v Woking Borough Council [2021] EWHC 698 (Admin) in the negative.
You can find the full report here.
This was a case seeking leave to apply for a judicial review on 4 grounds – only Ground 1 is relevant.
Ground 1 of the claimants’ grounds is that the s.106 agreement signed by the Council and New Central is legally deficient in that it does not bind the site. Alternatively, that there has been no explanation as to why or how the Council had reasoned the exclusion of the claimants’ land from the agreement.
The Judges ruling is found at para 22:
Further, I cannot see any legal requirement that a s.106 obligation ought to bind all material interests in a planning application site. Those with no interest in land can apply for planning permission in respect of it, as Mr Mohamed conceded, and a local planning authority can grant planning permission on taking material considerations into account. On my reading it was not a pre-condition of the Planning Committee’s decision in 2017 for the claimants to be a party to the s.106 agreement. That is not what the report says in its conclusion, and the passage immediately following, under the heading “Planning Obligation”, which I quoted earlier. The fact is that the obligation binds a sufficient part of the site, namely, that belonging to New Central, to preclude development unless its purposes are met. I would add that the claimants have not been excluded from the agreement; they may unilaterally bind themselves at any time to its obligations if they choose to do so.
The words in bold confirm a common-sense perspective.
While every case is dependent on its precise facts, we think this a useful authority for future use when faced with over demanding LPA requirement.
You may find this information useful in dialogue with your planning officer. Do contact us if you need some help.
This advice could well save you hundreds of thousands of pounds in future – so remember it well!
