6. Project Costs and Funding
6.1 Projected costs to undertake the activities are outlined in Section 5, Five Year Plan Delivery Strands above, as per the baseline year of 2024/25 indicated in Table 1.
Table 1: Projected costs for 2024/25
6. Project Costs and Funding
| Item | 000s |
|---|---|
| Staff provided under Service Level Agreement | 869 |
| Campaigns and Engagement Officer | 64 |
| Partnership Manager | 54 |
| Campaigns operational budget | 30 |
| Dog initiatives operational budget | 30 |
| Monitoring (including consultancy support) | 37 |
| Materials (signage) | 15 |
| Collaboration | 15 |
| Operating budget | 10 |
| Stakeholder workshops | 5 |
| Operating expenditure | 1,128 |
| Site Specific Project Monitoring Officer | 40 |
| Site specific projects | 400 |
| Capital commitment | 440 |
| Sub-total | 1,568 |
| Contribution to in-perpetuity fund | 2,130 |
| Total budget | 3,698 |
Table 1: Projected costs for 2024/25
6.2 These activities are funded from developer contributions. The level of these has been derived by dividing the total annual project costs between the expected annual housing levels. These have been weighted to take into account bedroom numbers for planned housing and are summarised for the baseline year (2024/25) in Table 2 below. Developer contributions are revised annually in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) and rounded upwards to the nearest pound.
6.3 From 2025/26, there will be 2 charging schedules, reflecting the different costs for those developments needing to mitigate for overwintering and breeding birds, and those only needing to mitigate for overwintering birds (this latter category make up around 1% of all expected developments during the Strategy period). These 2 schedules are depicted in Table 2, against a baseline of 2024/25.
| Bedroom size | Current: 2024/25 | Moves to: All year | Homes within the zone of SPA with winter birds only (less than 1% of total) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | £465 | £465* | £419* |
| 2 | £671 | £671* | £604* |
| 3 | £875 | £875* | £788* |
| 4 | £1,029 | £1,029* | £927* |
| 5+ | £1,207 | £1,207* | £1,087* |
| Flat fee | £777 | £777* | £700* |
* Annual inflationary increases will continue as usual
Table 2: Developer contributions baseline year 2024/25
6.4 Whilst this formula is appropriate for most dwellings, the option remains for Local Planning Authorities, in consultation with Natural England, to assess each application on a case-by-case basis.
6.5 These figures are recognised as an informed calculation for planned housing, and the actual number of dwellings coming forward could vary, both annually and throughout the lifetime of the Partnership. However, the package of mitigation measures in this strategy are scalable, which means that the amount of mitigation can be increased or decreased in line with actual housebuilding, and is a matter that is regularly reviewed.
6.6 There will be regular financial reviews throughout the lifetime of the Partnership to ensure that it remains on track to deliver sufficient mitigation through to the end of the inperpetuity period.
6.7 The developer contributions are paid to Local Planning Authorities. Each Authority decides which legal mechanisms to use to secure the developer contributions from development proposals in its area and the potential for phased / staged payments in relation to specific proposals.
6.8 Planning applications should be assessed on a case-by-case basis to take into account scale, proximity to sensitive areas, locality and any other substantive factors. Some proposals will require additional mitigation to that outlined above for example if the nature of the development could lead to ‘alone’ impacts on designated sites in addition to ‘incombination’ impacts. Developers are encouraged to hold early discussions with Natural England and the Local Planning Authority on the mitigation that will be required for their proposals.
6.9 Further information related to this can be found in Appendix B.
