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Municipal
authorities in the UK have invested a considerable amount of money in
air quality monitoring networks in recent years. They have achieved this by
using two main sources of money as well as their own budgets;
Supplementary Credit Approval
In the UK
municipal authorities have restrictions upon their ability to borrow money.
This is due to legislation to prevent high levels of debt amongst municipal
authorities.
However,
Central Government does allow municipal authorities to borrow money to fund
certain specified activities. In recent years one of these activities has been
air quality monitoring. This permitted borrowing from Central Government is
through a scheme called Supplementary Credit Approval (SCA).
The
mechanism of SCA is complex, and rather unusual. Under the scheme municipal
authorities make bids to Central Government to fund capital projects, for
example the installation of a new air quality monitoring station. Central
Government then makes a ‘loan’ to the municipal authority, typically over 25
years, and provides the municipal authority with additional money in its
annual budget in order to repay the loan. For this reason SCA money is more
like a grant than a loan, as it has no cost to municipal authorities.
SCA money
has allowed municipal authorities to increase their monitoring networks each
year, resulting in the comprehensive network seen across the UK. The importance of this mechanism is that it
provides the municipal authority with money that must be spent on the specific
area of air quality, and Central Government requires proof that the money was
spend in the way described in the bid for funding. This overcomes the problem of
air quality budgets competing directly with other social priorities dealt with
by municipal authorities.
Planning
Legislation
In the UK it is
necessary to seek Planning permission from the municipal authority for new
developments. Planning legislation allows the municipal authority to apply
planning conditions that the developer must comply with. Under this legislation
(section 106 of The Town and Country Planning Act 1990) the municipal authority
can require the developer to enter into a planning agreement. These agreements
can be to make a financial contribution to improve the community
infrastructure to meet the needs of residents in new developments, or to reduce
the impact of the new development upon existing community facilities. Financial
contributions towards community infrastructure are used, for example, to build
or improve community halls and play areas, for the maintenance of open space,
and for the enhancement of transport infrastructure.
One typical
example of this would be for a fast food restaurant to be asked to contribute
to improvements to a local road that would have increased traffic travelling on
it once the fast food restaurant opened.
However, in
recent years municipal authorities have been entering into section 106
agreements for a wider range of projects, including funding air quality
projects. Developers building schemes such as supermarkets that result in large
increases in traffic flows have entered into agreements to fund long-term air
quality monitoring nearby.
The process
of using these agreements to fund air quality is still controversial in the UK, with just a few municipal authorities taking this
approach. However, these local authorities have found that in cases of large
development projects developers are quite willing to enter into these
agreements, and the funding obtained can be sufficient to set up and run a
single monitoring station for several years. Money paid by the developer is
held in an account that allows the equipment to be purchased, and provides an
annual budget to fund the station for the specified number of years. |