Councils in England and Wales have an estimated £8bn in contributions from developers that have yet to be spent, according to the Home Builders Federation (HBF).

In its research, the HBF has revealed that £6bn of this is from Section 106 agreements with the rest raised through the Community Infrastructure Levy.

On average, councils hold £19m in unspent Section 106 contributions. Such payments are made by developers to fund affordable housing, infrastructure and amenities in the process of seeking planning permission.

Breaking down the £8bn figure, £817m of this is unspent affordable housing contributions that could have delivered 11,000 homes. The rest of the money could have funded 126,000 new school places, 1,000 sports halls, 4,700 community games areas and repaired around 12.6m potholes.

The research - formed from FOI responses from 208 local authorities - also found that 26% of this £8bn has been held for more than five years.

Neil Jefferson, CEO at the HBF, commented:  Bottom of Form

“Each year developers contribute around £7bn to local authorities for the provision of local infrastructure, affordable housing and education, recreational and health facilities but some councils are increasingly failing to invest this cash into the services that so desperately need it.”