The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has published its latest State of Play 2025/26 report, offering one of the clearest pictures yet of how small and medium-sized (SME) home builders are faring – and what’s holding them back.
The findings are striking: the UK’s SME developers say they could increase housing delivery by more than 50% if longstanding obstacles around planning, regulation and affordability were addressed. Keep reading to learn more in this week’s blog.
A new report shows that local authorities across England and Wales have, in their bank accounts, an estimated £2.8 billion of unused contributions from home builders.
This is money that builders contribute through what’s known as ‘Section 106’ contributions to local authorities as part of the planning agreement, the purpose of which is to fund local services and infrastructure upgrades. Find out more about how these important funds are going unspent in this week’s blog.