Councils in UK sitting on US$525m earmarked for affordable housing

Local councils in England are sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds designated for affordable housing.

A total of £375 million (US$525.27 million) is available, £100 million of which has not even been earmarked for a specific project. This is despite a survey last year for the Town and Country Planning Association showing that 98 per cent of councils described their need for affordable homes as either “severe” or “moderate”.

The cash has been accumulated under the so-called Section 106 agreements, by which builders and developers give a council a ring-fenced amount of money instead of building affordable homes within a development themselves.

James Prestwich, head of policy at the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, said it confirmed the federation’s view that Section 106 was flawed.

“Affordable housing should be delivered within new developments, rather than developers simply funding its delivery elsewhere,” he said. “This would guarantee that affordable housing will be built alongside other homes.”

Some of the worst offenders revealed by research carried out by the Huffington Post are in London and the southeast. The housing minister Dominic Raab’s own local council, Elmbridge in Surrey, has £8 million waiting to be invested.