Council bosses “sitting on” tens of millions of pounds in unspent cash have been urged to speed up promised community upgrades across Newcastle.
Newcastle City Council currently holds £42 million of unused Section 106 (S106) payments, money secured from developers as part of planning permissions being granted.
The cash can be spent on things like new schools, affordable homes, transport infrastructure, healthcare provision, and sports facilities.
But councillors were told on Friday that, while much of the unspent money is committed for specific projects that are yet to come forward, only a relatively small fraction has been used in the last year.
Members of the authority’s planning committee said there were parts of Newcastle in “desperate need” of spending and that it was “awful” to see so much money left in civic centre coffers.
According to a report, Newcastle City Council holds almost £35 million in S106 money committed to improvements at the Newcastle Great Park and other major housebuilding sites – with a further £20 million due on top of that. But only £6 million has been spent from those pots in the past 12 months.
In that same period, just £68,000 out of a total £3.6 million available for improvements to open spaces, sports pitches, green infrastructure and children’s play areas across the entire city has been used.
Speaking at Friday’s committee meeting, Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Allen said: “If you were generous and said that was [spent every] six months rather than a year, that would suggest it would take us 25 years to spend the money when I am sure all ward members can say that there is some scope for repairs, maintenance, and capital spend. I can take you to at least six locations in Jesmond Dene that are in desperate need of cash.”
While the council also holds nearly £900,000 earmarked for transport and accessibility improvement in the city centre and a further £1.5 million for city-wide travel, open space, and recreation initiatives, it has spent no S106 money on any of those in the last year.
The authority also has around £8 million in Community Infrastructure Funding (CIL) available, another type of charge it levies on some new developments.
Coun Marion Williams, of the East End and Associates Independent Group, said the figures were “quite alarming”, with the council “sitting on all this money” at a time when it is preparing to announce another round of multi-million pound budget cuts.
She added: “We have a number of parks in the city that are just a mess and it seems awful to me that we are spending so little when so much is available.”
Coun Williams called for the council to mount a review to ensure if it is “maximising” S106 payments and has the capacity to keep on top of the issue, saying: “I am not sure we are. I would really like to know how we compare with other core cities, because I don’t think we compare well.”
Planning officer Jon Rippon said that, while the bulk of the S106 is identified for specific purposes, it “takes time” for developments to come forward and that bigger schemes like new schools are “not cheap”.
In response to Coun Allen’s comments, he replied: “I know what you are saying. £70,000 out of £3.6 million is not a lot, but there are some quite substantial projects earmarked for spending. They are moving forward and that should get more drawn down and it will be quite large chunks.”
Labour councillor Teresa Cains, who chairs the planning committee, said she shared the concerns, while Lib Dem Doreen Huddart suggested reinstating bins next to bus stops as a “small community improvement” that would be popular with residents.
