Commentary on Sections Part 4: Development Control Section 46: Planning contribution
73.Section 46 empowers the Secretary of State to make regulations which will enable planning contributions to be made in relation to the development or use of land in the area of a local planning authority. The local planning authority could be required by the regulations to set out in a document:
	which developments and uses they will seek contributions for;
	where they will not seek a contribution;the purposes to which receipts from contributions may be made, either in whole or in part;
	the criteria for determining the value of the contribution.
The contributor may make a contribution either by the optional planning charge ('the prescribed means') or by a means agreed by negotiation (the 'relevant requirements'), or by a combination of both. The prescribed means could consist of the payment of a sum, or the provision of a benefit in kind, or a combination of both. Section 46 also provides for regulations to prescribe circumstances in which the contribution, if made by the prescribed means, may not also be made by meeting the relevant requirements, and vice versa.
Section 122(5)(a) and 122(6) provide that any regulations made under Section 46 should be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure.