Tuesday June 03, 2025 Section 106 agreements now taking an average of 16 months

Planning departments cannot cope with workloads leading to more house building delays

A 20% rise in the time taken to negotiate Section 106 agreements means house builders are waiting an average of 515 days to sign deals with local authorities.

New analysis by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) highlights serious delays in the infrastructure agreement process, with 76% of local authorities reporting average negotiation timescales exceeding 12 months.

S106 agreements set out the contributions developers must make to support the local community, such as funding for schools, roads, public spaces, and affordable housing.

A Freedom of Information request to Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) reveal that the average time to finalise S106 agreements has increased by 20% over two years, from 425 days in 2022/23 to 515 days in 2024/25.

The research also found that 35% of all S106 agreements took longer than 12 months to complete, with the longest recorded timescale reaching a staggering 2,679 days – more than seven years.

Lack of capacity in local authorities is thought to be a key contributing factor to delays. It is estimated that 80% of LPAs are now operating below full capacity, with an additional 2,200 planning officers needed across England and Wales to close the staffing gap.

Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the Home Builders Federation, said: “The delays in negotiating Section 106 agreements are a clear example of how a lack of capacity in local authorities and inconsistencies in the planning process are affecting the delivery of much-needed homes.

“Home builders are proud of the contributions their developments make to local services and infrastructure and want these to be delivered in a timely fashion. With over £7 billion delivered through S106 agreements each year, we cannot afford for the system to keep failing.

“While Government has acknowledged the staffing constraints and taken welcome steps to address delays in the planning process, we now need to see meaningful action to increase capacity at a scale commensurate with the importance of the challenge.”