Number of building sites with delays quadrupled between March and October
More than 17,000 affordable homes with detailed planning permission are stalled due to a lack of registered providers in the market to buy the homes, according to a survey of housebuilders carried out by the Home Builders Federation (HBF).
According to a report from the HBF today, 17,432 ‘section 106’ affordable housing units with permission remained uncontracted in October, with work on 139 building sites delayed due to the issue. The figures are based on responses from 31 housebuilders.
Nine developers reported their number of delayed sites collectively has more than quadrupled from 27 in March 2024 to 110 by October.
Under section 106, housebuilders are required to ensure a percentage of homes in a development are for affordable tenures as a condition of planning permission. Housing associations typically forward buy the affordable units off housebuilders to manage for the long-term. Around four in 10 affordable homes were delivered through section 106 deals in 2023/24.
The HBF report said associations are facing rising costs, including building safety remediation work expenses, and reduced balance sheet capacity, meaning many providers are preferring to concentrate on their own sites where they can deliver larger numbers of affordable homes.
Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the HBF, said: “The lack of RPs in the market to take on the affordable housing delivered by the private sector is a major and growing problem, increasingly threatening affordable and overall housing supply.
“Small sites are being prevented from starting, and larger sites are being halted due to the inability of developers to meet the affordable housing delivery requirements of the planning permission.”
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