Housebuilders may have to pay for new schools in Lancashire under planning overhaul

The move is amongst a series of proposals approved by Lancashire County Council's cabinet to bring the region in line with government guidance issued last year about how local authorities should secure cash from housebuilders to mitigate the effects of their developments.

County Hall can already demand contributions towards the cost of individual school places generated by additional housing, but the revised policy will enable the authority to seek funding for an entirely new facility where multiple estates create a need for a new school. Currently, it would only usually be possible to pursue a new-build school if a single development was large enough to require one.

"In some areas of the county, opportunities to expand our existing schools are extremely limited," said Lancashire County Council's cabinet member for schools, Phillippa Williamson.

"This proposal...enables us to look at the extent of development across an area and seek contributions from all the developers involved."

Under the new arrangement, any contributions to a new school would be calculated in proportion to the size of each of the individual housebuilders' estates.

A per place price of £20,500 for a primary school and just under £25,000 for a secondary school would be demanded - with the expectation that land and construction costs would be covered and the building provided at a "peppercorn" rent.

The new government guidance also suggests that contributions for individual places at existing schools should be based on a national average of school place costs adjusted for local factors.

In Lancashire, that will result in a £622 increase in developer contributions for primary school places to £17,268 - but a more than £1,300 reduction in the amount demanded for secondary schools of £23,775 per place.

County Cllr Williamson said that the new policy would enable the authority to "negotiate the best deal and secure the most places in the right areas".

She added: "This will bring greater clarity and transparency to the process and will reduce the level of developer and local planning authority challenges to education contribution requests.

If district councils which - as local planning authorities - decide whether to grant permission for new housing, were to recommend that an individual estate should be built without any education contribution to County Hall where one had been requested, the new policy means Lancashire County Council would lodge a formal objection.

Labour opposition group leader Azhar Ali welcomed the package of changes, arguing that there had been a lack of "synergy" over the number of school places demanded by the county council between developments of different sizes.