This week, the Urban Mobility Partnership hosted a parliamentary drop-in event bringing together MPs and UMP members to discuss how billions of pounds already earmarked for infrastructure could be deployed more effectively.
Over 30 parliamentarians and their offices attended our event to hear how much the councils in their constituencies hold in unspent section 106 funds and our recommendations to unlock this money.
Our research shows that at least £5.3 billion is currently sitting unspent in council accounts, including over £700 million allocated for transport projects.
These funds were collected from developers to mitigate the impact of new developments on local infrastructure – yet too often they remain unused for years due to overly restrictive agreements, inconsistent guidance and limited local authority capacity.
Linsey Farnsworth MP signing our open letter to the Secretary of State
Encouragingly, fixing this does not require major legislative change.
Our report outlines a number of practical steps that could unlock these funds more quickly and strategically, including:
- Allowing councils to reallocate stalled Section 106 funds
- Enabling strategic pooling of developer contributions to support larger transport corridors
- Introducing clearer standardised transport categories to ensure agreements are drafted with flexibility from the outset
- Providing targeted national support to strengthen local authority capacity to deploy S106 funds
Section 106 monies are funds paid to local authorities by developers as part of the planning approval process to offset the impact of development. The report urges reform of the system to allow this money to be more easily invested in local communities.
To read the full report, please click below. If you would like to access the full data collected by UMP through its FOI requests, please email us at info@urbanmobilitypartnership.com.
