Outrage has been expressed by officials and residents after Oxfordshire was revealed as having the highest amount of unspent developer cash across the country.
A Freedom of Information request by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) revealed that Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) is holding the largest amount of unspent Section 106 money among all respondents at £287.5m.
Section 106 money is a type of funding in which housebuilders pay for community and social facilities as part of an agreement to serve new developments.
OCC has since said that this figure is for the 2022/23 period, and that the 2023/24 figure has fallen by £27m, sitting at £260,831,978.
But critics have pointed the finger at the authority questioning why this public money has not been spent sooner on facilities which will benefit the wider public.
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Judy Roberts, cabinet member for infrastructure and development strategy, could not confirm where it ranks nationally in this regard in the latest full council meeting on Tuesday (November 5).
As many as 208 local authorities responded to the Freedom of Information request asking how much unspent Section 106 money they have.
Sitting on the cash, which developers must pay to local planning authorities for affordable housing and public amenities, means it has not been invested in roads, schools and healthcare.
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Liam Walker, Conservative county councillor, West Oxford District councillor and shadow member for transport management, told us: "I think Oxfordshire residents, particularly those in areas that have seen a huge increase in new houses built, will be furious to discover that the county council is sitting on such a huge amount of money.
"This is cash from development sites to improve our roads, our schools, our local infrastructure and it should be getting spent on this.
"As chair of the place scrutiny committee I've ensured that we urgently investigate why this money isn't being spent and at our next meeting, we will be doing just that.”
“Oxfordshire has seen massive increases in housebuilding without commensurate increases in infrastructure," he said.
"Much of the money is there, but it is squirrelled away in company and local authority bank accounts without being spent.
“We need a wholly new approach: a more flexible statutory framework that would allow local authorities to spend money on infrastructure when and where it is needed most.
"The current system is too narrow, too complex and too slow. The tragedy is that, at least, some of this money will now never be spent with communities which have taken the infrastructure paying the price in poorer public facilities.”
A spokesman for OCC said: "£27m has not been lost. S106 money is held for specific purposes related to development and so cannot be spent on general council services.
"Funding for individual projects will often be assembled from multiple developments meaning we will always need to hold a level of funding before infrastructure can be delivered.
"This year we will deliver £24m of investment from s106 which is ramping up to more than £60m in 2025/26."
The FOI request by the HBF also asked what purpose the Section 106 agreements were allocated for such as transport, health, education or affordable housing.
OCC had the largest amount of unspent school and education contributions at £142.60m.
OCC also had the second-largest amount of unspent highways and roads contributions at £75.9m and the second-largest amount of unspent contributions allocated to healthcare and unspecified purposes at £64.4m.
Mike Buckmaster, who has lived in Bicester since the 1990s, said it is "absolutely appalling" that OCC "have allowed these sums to be sat unspent".
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"Bicester has taken more than its fair share of development, we need the investment in our town," said the 83-year-old.
"Our roads are neglected with potholes everywhere and constant chaos from roadworks.
"I've never seen it so bad in the 30 years I've lived in Bicester. I want to see these monies spent on the roads and local infrastructure owed to our town."
Conservative Bicester town councillor Sam Holland said the unspent developer money is a "complete betrayal" of the people in the county.
"Our roads are crumbling, the traffic gridlock is at an all-time high, yet the Liberal Democrat and Green-run country council are sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds from property developers seemingly without any plan or intention of spending this money on the much-needed road and community infrastructure for local that our town desperately needs.
“I’m also deeply concerned why local schools and children’s organisations have to resort to large fundraising efforts of their own, when Oxfordshire County Council has £143 million available to spend on schools and children’s education."
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A spokesperson for Oxfordshire County Council said: "It is not unusual for Oxfordshire County Council to hold monies in readiness to spend on strategic infrastructure, which often takes many years to be delivered.
"Often infrastructure projects require pooled contributions so that S106 monies are held in order to help fund and deliver the capital programme.
"Therefore to have an outstanding balance of S106 monies is not out of the ordinary.
"Many of the sites are large and complex and take a number of years to come forward and each will have their own trigger points for S106 payments to be made.
"The county council has an exceptionally good record in negotiating and collecting S106 payments and regularly reviews the quantity of S106 monies held against the infrastructure needed to support or mitigate development.
"This is part of an ongoing review with services."
Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the HBF, said: “With the government desperate to find money to invest in infrastructure to drive growth, it is nonsensical to have billions sat in council bank accounts.
“While appreciating the pressures and constraints on councils, we simply have to find a better way to ensure this money is spent promptly to benefit local communities, support local services and drive growth.”
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