Luton council dismisses 'misleading' figure of uncollected developer cash - but admits 'systemic failing'
Fears “misleading figures have been put into the public domain” about uncollected local authority planning contributions have been expressed at a meeting by a Luton Borough Council committee chairman.
Labour High Town councillor James Taylor told LBC’s scrutiny finance review group that “£140m of outstanding historic debt” in legal development obligations “isn’t owed to the council”.
LBC’s director of sustainable development Sarah McLaughlin presented a committee report, saying: “The sums identified total £4.2m.
“We remain committed to pursuing outstanding obligations. Amounts approaching £140m are significantly overstated, and will include projection for monies due to the council in future years.
“This might be sites such as Power Court. Officers have reviewed data and the reporting provides an accurate picture of monies due, in terms of historic figures.
“Each agreement contains different amounts of funding, which are triggered at various points of a development build-out. The report sets out a process to review outstanding amounts due to the council.
“An independent investigation will be carried out for completeness. We’re committed to openness and transparency.”
Councillor Taylor referred to “a figure first quoted at policy group of £10m being recovered, which has come out here as just over £4.1m”, asking how these were reached.
She replied: “The information on the original £10m has evolved over time.
“It was the best known available data at the time of publication. Further investigation into this year has indicated this may have included duplicate agreements.
“The team are currently reviewing the numbers associated with the £10m. What we can say for certain is the numbers in this report are accurate as of today.”
Liberal Democrat Barnfield councillor David Franks explained: “I first asked for this in December last year and have since met resistance, delays, obfuscations and excuses.
“At last we’ve a report here, although even now the numbers and dates cause more confusion than provide information. All the numbers I’ve quoted came from the council, and most of them from official documents.
“I owe the chief executive a ‘thank you’ for agreeing to commission an independent investigation, and to ask Grant Thornton to conduct that.
“It’s a pity the council hasn’t been more open about this problem, since it was first discovered six or seven years ago. If it had been, attitudes would have been more sympathetic.”
LBC’s service director of finance Julie Lorraine confirmed: “All of the historical Section 106 agreements since 1990 have been part of the review.
“The result on all 494 (schemes) was to identify the ones which were due to be paid and had not. None of these debts have been written off.
“The team has done incredibly well in resolving a historical and complex problem. In relation to 2021 to 2026, there are no outstanding payments that were due and haven’t been paid during that period.”
Councillor Taylor welcomed that a full investigation will take place, and acknowledged “the delay in taking firm action” from 2019 to 2024 was “a pretty serious systemic failing”.
He added: “This has been an evolving report. We’ve seen changes to the figures from the first report, as we’d expect as an investigation deepens.
“It’s concerning that misleading figures have been put into the public domain regarding the £140m. There’s not £140m of outstanding historic debt owed to the council.”