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White paper — ActionFunder with Town Legal LLP

£9bn

in Section 106 and CIL contributions. Sitting in local authority accounts. Earmarked for communities. Not moving.

The £9bn Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight

How councils and developers can make Section 106 and CIL funds work harder and faster for communities.

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Roundtable attendees included

Town Legal LLP Social Value Portal McSorley Impact Consultants The Crown Estate Canary Wharf Group Savills CBRE RBKC The Planning Lab Quod IG Consultancy NLA Hill Earls Court Development Company Whitbread Imperial College
The £9bn Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight — white paper cover

Chapter 01 — The Problem

£3bn

held unspent for more than five years

Good Intentions. A Stuck System.

Developers are paying. Councils are receiving. Communities are not seeing the benefit. Around £3 billion of the total £9 billion has been waiting more than five years.

This is not a problem of intent. The legal frameworks are sound. Developers have paid what was agreed. Councils want this money out of the door as much as anyone. The problem is that the system was built for a version of local government that no longer exists.

It is a process problem, not a funding problem.

Through a founding roundtable attended by 22 senior leaders from local government, major developers, planning consultants, and the social-value sector, the same three barriers came up again and again.

01

Relationship — the conversation ends too soon

Once a contribution is paid, the developer's formal involvement ends. Councils carry the entire delivery burden alone, with no ongoing relationship and limited resourcing.

02

Legal — obligations where the need has evolved

Section 106 deeds are drafted for the moment of planning permission. As local need shifts and delivery routes change, the drafting that protected the original intent can start to work against it.

03

System — the operational cost of distribution

Even when relationships and legal frameworks work, the operational machine is heavy. Distributing community-scale grants is administratively expensive, which is why some funds are held rather than distributed.

£9bn
Section 106 and CIL contributions held in ring-fenced local authority accounts across England and Wales
Source: Home Builders Federation (HBF), March 2026

"Funds need to reflect the actual shape of local need, not a standardised template drawn up years earlier. When that grounding is missing, contributions go undelivered. Neither outcome serves the community the money was meant for."

Michelle McSorley

CEO, McSorley Impact Consultants

The social value embedded in development is substantial, equivalent to between 20 and 43 per cent of construction costs. The tragedy is that much of it never becomes visible, because the link between what developers pay and what communities receive gets lost in the system.

Guy Battle

CEO, Social Value Portal, roundtable attendee

Chapter 02 — The Solution

£10M

made available to communities through ActionFunder

How ActionFunder Transforms Section 106 Delivery

The solutions proposed follow the same sequence as the diagnostic: relationship first, then legal, then system. Fixing the legal drafting without improving the underlying relationships leaves the same accountability gap in place.

Find. Fund. Follow.

  • Find non-profits that match your impact criteria or bid requirements, from a pre-vetted network, without weeks of sourcing.

  • Fund projects through one intuitive grant management platform, with a clear audit trail at every stage and council approval preserved throughout.

  • Follow impact with real-time updates and detailed, shareable reports, ready when your stakeholders need them.

22
senior leaders at the founding roundtable — from local government, major developers, planning consultants, and social-value organisations
ActionFunder & Town Legal LLP roundtable, March 2026

"We used to spend 80% of our time on admin, leaving little room to focus on strategy and community engagement. Now, with ActionFunder handling the legwork, we can dedicate 20% more time to what truly matters."

Amy Houghton

Grants Officer, Sovereign Network Group

Chapter 03 — The Evidence

Trusted by Funders Delivering Real Community Change

The platform is used by more than 50 developers, corporate funders and local authorities. Here is what that looks like in practice.

Watch — From Procurement Promise to Real Impact

Michelle McSorley, CEO at McSorley Impact Consultants, on how ActionFunder turns procurement commitments into verifiable community outcomes.

Michelle McSorley-Sharp — From Procurement Promise to Real Impact

"Now we can connect to more people, do good and get commercially usable impact reports. I've never seen anything instil more pride and connect more of our people to who we are as a business than our work with ActionFunder."

Lynda Thwaite

Director of Brand, Bids, Marketing, Sir Robert McAlpine

"Before working with ActionFunder, the reach of our Neighbourhood Fund was small and dependent on word of mouth. Now, we get around 450 applicants per month from diverse non-profits spread across our focus location."

Olivia Crisp

formerly Community Engagement Leader, South West Water

Free white paper — Download now

Get the full picture. Download the white paper.

The £9bn Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight sets out the problem clearly, the proposals practically, and the timeline for change. Written for council officers, developers, and planning consultants working on this every day.

  • Why £9 billion in Section 106 and CIL funds has not reached communities, and the three root causes
  • How developers can stay involved after a contribution is paid, with councils retaining full democratic oversight
  • Legal drafting approaches that keep obligations workable as local need evolves, from Town Legal LLP
  • How technology reduces the operational cost of grant distribution, and what that looks like in practice
  • A timeline for change: pilot fund distributions and collaborative partnerships from Autumn 2026

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The £9bn Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight

ActionFunder & Town Legal LLP · 2026 · PDF