South Kesteven District Council planning committee chairman says healthcare is not a ‘major consideration’ when deciding on developments

A planning committee chairman says healthcare provision is not a ‘major consideration’ when deciding on large developments — as figures show almost £5 million planning money earmarked for health has not been spent.

South Kesteven District Council planning committee chairman Charmaine Morgan spoke out about the ‘vicious circle’ of authorities relying on developers to provide social housing as there has been no Government funding available — yet housing merely adding to demand.

She also told the Lincolnshire’s Health Scrutiny Committee meeting that even if developers do provide a new health centre - there is no guarantee that a GP will be found to run it and highlighted concerns about ‘sustainability’.

The issue surrounding money paid by developers for infrastructure as part of their planning permissions, known as Section 106 payments, has come under the spotlight after Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board has shared figures highlighting how much of this cash it has spent on local healthcare.

A total of just £555,670.29 S106 cash has been spent in the county over the last five years - including £30,652.05 in South Holland and £96,671.77 in South Kesteven.

Across the whole area, £4,948,387.19 is sitting in the coffers unspent — with factors such as inflation and construction costs being blame for the health service not using the cash to deliver services that communities are calling for.

In South Kesteven more than £1 million is available to spent, while £827,000 is up for grabs in South Holland — a point of frustration in Holbeach, where residents have been told plans for a new health hub have been shelved on cost grounds.

More than £10 million of planning cash for health services is also awaiting the ‘trigger point’ on when it must be spent.

Coun Morgan (Lincs Ind), who represents Grantham St Vincents and campaigned against cuts to A&E services in the town, said she had been a member of the planning committee for about 13 years.

Speaking at the meeting on Wednesday (July 17), she said: “This has been a real issue. I think first of all, it's around the definition of sustainability.

“There's a huge concern that we are developing more and more and more, but we when we look at health care provision, is it actually sustainable?

“And when you're making decisions on the planning committee, you have to weigh so many different things and, actually, very often healthcare ends up being bumped down the line and it isn't actually a major consideration. Whereas in fact for the population, it is a very main concern.”

She told the meeting that there is a lesson for government - that councils can only building housing if the authority has the funding.

Coun Morgan said: “We are totally dependent on the private sector to actually get on and build the houses. So we've got this catch 22 vicious circle. If they don't build the houses and meet their trigger points. We're absolutely stymied and they're very good at just missing trigger points.

“I think one of the big issues we've got is this 50% trigger point dictated by the developers. We know our GPs are working at maximum capacity and over we know we've lost GPs in our areas. Therefore, is it actually reasonable to expect that this?

“So if I just take one that's planned in my area, is it reasonable that we will have a new population of approximately 10,000 people before we get a single GP extra coming to the area? So this this has a knock on impact. And it's unfortunate because it builds a resistance in the local community to new development when we actually know we need more housing so it's actually really, really important.”

Coun Morgan told the committee that Lincolnshire receives £1,000 per head less than places such as London. She also described the county as the ‘poor relation’.

She went onto say: “I have talking to a very well-known land owner recently who is was responsible for one of the big developments and the discussion we were jointly having was even if they go ahead and build the surgery, is there any guarantee of GP will come forward to actually occupy it? And that is a really big concern.

“I think we also need to improve the communications between the planning departments and the ICB. I spoke to our lead planning officer, and they said that basically they very often don't get a response when they put in a request regarding what the health needs are, and I'm not sure why that's happening.”

Coun Paul Martin (Con, Grantham North) said: "I don't think the residents would be very pleased to find that developers are holding on to cash that we could have in our GP surgery.”

Sara Starbuck, head of primary care commissioning and development at the ICB, told the meeting that the S106 system is one that they had inherited from NHS England — and she said they work closely with practices.

Should healthcare now be a major priority when councillors decide on housing developments? Post a comment below…