Local authorities in England are holding on to £1.5bn of unspent “community money” given to them by developers during planning talks, Freedom of Information requests submitted by the BBC have suggested.
The Section 106 money is intended to be used for social and community projects. However, £421m of it has not been allocated to any future schemes. Over the past five years £9.8m has been returned to developers, often because it has not been spent within a set time period.
