The real threat to housebuilding? £8bn of non-action

Across England and Wales, more than £8bn of developer contributions – from Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy – sits in council accounts unspent.

The scale is significant. Around £817m is earmarked for affordable housing – equivalent to an entire year of the government’s national budget for new affordable homes. Nearly £2bn is intended for schools. And £2.6bn is now at risk of clawback, with some funds sitting idle for more than two decades. In the middle of a housing crisis and a cost-of-living crisis, this isn’t just frustrating – it’s a scandal!

These funds were meant to deliver community infrastructure – youth services, green spaces, health facilities, skills programmes. Instead, they’re tied up in a system too slow, siloed and underpowered to respond to the urgency of today.

The reasons for this are familiar: council capacity is stretched. Rules around how contributions can be spent are often outdated or restrictive. In many areas, the process for tracking and allocating funds is opaque – even councillors can struggle to see what’s available. These barriers are not unique to any one borough. They are systemic. And unless we fix it, the gap between what’s promised and what’s delivered will only grow – along with the public confusion that comes with it.

Credibility risk for development

This failure doesn’t just hurt communities. It threatens the entire development sector. And I say that not as a critic, but as someone who works with – and believes in – the industry.

I’ve spent much of my career in investment and development. I believe the built environment community is one of the most philanthropic in the UK. It is full of people committed to delivering value – not just for shareholders, but for society. There’s genuine appetite to contribute to the places companies are building in.

But when these allocated funds and improvements have been caught in red tape for, in some areas, almost a generation, that social value is invisible. Communities see cranes and disruption, but not the youth centre, the GP surgery, or the affordable homes they were told would follow. Is it any wonder that public trust around development is eroding?

Polling shows that 37% of the public now oppose a large increase in housebuilding, up from 29% just a year ago. But that number halves when it comes to affordable housing, with only 20% opposed, compared to 41% for general housing. In other words, the problem isn’t new homes – it’s unmet promises.

The Royal Town Planning Institute found that 67% of the public are “MIMBYs” – not anti-development by default like their close neighbours the NIMBYs, but “Maybe In My Back Yard” people, open to new homes under the right conditions. This is the battleground. And the biggest tool developers have to win trust, is to show visible local benefit – fast.

When councils fail to deliver on the community side of the deal, the development industry isn’t just losing PR points. It’s losing the social licence to build. And that has serious implications for everyone – from developers to planners to national government.

A smarter, faster fix

The solution isn’t scrapping the system. It’s modernising it. New tools – including AI-driven platforms like ActionFunder – are already helping councils and developers unblock stalled contributions, move money more quickly and deliver impact with greater transparency and accountability.

These platforms reduce admin, automate due diligence and connect funders to local charities that are rooted in their communities and ready to go. Crucially, they also generate communications-ready assets – testimonials, videos, case studies – that show in real time what’s being delivered on the ground.

In a climate of growing scepticism, that kind of visibility matters. It’s exactly what we need to shift perception, build credibility and start turning “MIMBYs” into “YIMBYs.”

The autumn opportunity

With the autumn budget looming, we should be treating unspent contributions not as a dormant asset, but as an £8bn pot of possibilities. The money is there. The need is urgent. What’s missing is the mechanism.

Let’s fix that – and start building support for the homes and infrastructure we need by delivering the benefits we’ve already promised.

 Mark Shearer is CEO of ActionFunder