ABSTRACT
The Fourth Report of the House of Commons Environment Committee on Shopping Centres makes two important procedural recommendations in respect of Circular 1/97 'Planning Obligations': that guidance was still needed on the apportionment of cross-boundary planning gain; and that copies of planning obligations should be kept in the planning register together with the permissions to which they relate, thus facilitating public access. During the development boom of the 1970s, this form of planning bargaining became widespread and was undertaken under the power granted to local planning authorities under s 52 of the Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA) 1971. This chapter deals with the legitimacy of obligations offered by developers as part of their proposals to gain planning permission. Local planning authorities are also entitled to propose agreements without which the authority would otherwise refuse planning permission.
