Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation 2

3rd Report - Delivering 1.5 million new homes: Land Value Capture Published 28 Oct 2025 Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Reforms to land value capture should be iterative, starting with improvements to existing mechanisms. Therefore, the Government must immediately pursue the reforms to Section 106 and CIL outlined in the chapters below. These reforms must optimise the system’s capacity to capture land value uplifts and deliver infrastructure and affordable housing—particularly homes for Social Rent—in line with the Government’s wider policy ambitions. The Government must also trial additional mechanisms of land value capture in areas where there are significant uplifts in land value which current mechanisms may not capture effectively. Specifically, the New Towns programme discussed in Chapter 5 presents a vital opportunity to test new ways of financing infrastructure delivery on large developments and learn lessons for future reforms. (Recommendation, Paragraph 27)

From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 3rd Report - Delivering 1.5 million new homes: Land Value Capture (HC 672), 28 October 2025

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 20 March 2026 (deadline 28 December 2025).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government welcomes the Committee's inquiry and says it "recognises there is more to do" on developer contributions, accepting some recommendations, noting or not pursuing others, and pointing to its NPPF consultation and wider reforms.

  • On Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) coverage, the government "has agreed to the Committee's recommendation and commits to publishing a map of CIL coverage in England", but intends to do so without accompanying information on rates.
  • On funded Level 7 planning apprenticeships, the government "notes" the recommendation and considers that funding apprenticeship routes alone "does not guarantee" learners will work in or remain in local planning authorities. It points instead to its Planning Capacity and Capability Programme.
  • On planning fees, it does "not consider it appropriate to fund local plan-making through planning application fees". On a statutory Section 106 dispute resolution scheme, it does not intend to implement the 2016 Act provisions "at this time" but "will keep this under review".
  • On land value estimates, the government is developing updated estimates and says "the aim is to publish updated values for a range of land uses this year".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error