Council needs additional £1bn for infrastructure

Hertfordshire County Council needs an additional £1bn for infrastructure projects to support new homes in the county.

Over 100,000 new homes are expected to be built across Hertfordshire, with sites in Hertford expected to deliver over 1000, and Ware expecting close to 2000, subject to planning approvals.

The figures are included in a 2021 report detailing future infrastructure requirements and the estimated cost, funding gap, and financial risks to infrastructure delivery.

When developers submit plans for new homes, the county council identifies projects they want developers to fund.

At a meeting of the Sustainable Economic Growth Panel on Monday (11th September 2023), councillors were presented with an annual Infrastructure Funding Statement, which sets out the Council’s income and expenditure relating to 'developer contributions' (also known as Section 106 agreements) over the last financial year. It also sets out related planned expenditure priorities in the future.

Section 106 funding is used to help fund the provision of supporting infrastructure in association with development and to mitigate the impacts of growth. County council infrastructure includes adult care services, education, fire and rescue services, libraries, transport, waste disposal and youth services. 

The county council received £19.9m from developers in the year to March 2023. A large proportion of the funding goes towards new schools and school expansions to accommodate the population growth. At the same time the council spent £38.8m during the year.

Overall, the council currently holds £79.1 million of S106 funding. This includes £1.2m for a new school in Ware.

Current projections show that Hertfordshire requires at least 50 new primary and 15 new secondary schools to meet the demands of growth, as well as a significant expansion programme of existing schools to meet the proposed scale of new housing growth across the county. Other projects that require funding include the Hertfordshire Essex Rapid Transit system proposed for the A414 corridor.

However, the cost of providing some of the major upgrades required across the county cannot be met solely by developer contributions.

The funding gap is particularly acute for roads and for sustainable transport projects. It is therefore unlikely that all these projects will come forward without funding from sources supplementary to developer contributions. There is also a funding gap for primary and secondary education projects, which may need to be closed.

:: Report to Hertfordshire Growth, Infrastructure & Planning Panel, September 2021

Council Officers are exploring new funding sources to help reduce the funding gap.