Each year, home builders provide financial contributions to local authorities which are agreed as part of the process of securing planning permission. These contributions are intended to fund infrastructure and amenities such as extra school facilities, health provision, open spaces, Affordable Housing, and road upgrades.

However, increasingly local authorities are holding these funds unspent, meaning local communities are not fully benefitting from the positive contributions of development. We carry out a regular, extensive freedom of information (FOI) exercise to review the true scale of unspent funds across England and Wales.