If it isn't spent, it can go back

What happens to the money developers promise for your surgery and school.

When an estate gets permission, the developer signs an agreement (a "section 106") to pay towards what the new homes need. Four things about it are worth knowing.

1. It only covers the estate's own impact. 200 homes can chip in for a classroom. On their own they'll never pay for a surgery.
2. The money comes after the homes. Payments are usually due once a set number of homes are occupied: the junction near Stowmarket, for example, has to be finished before 125 homes are lived in. So "homes first" is simply how it works.
3. It can be changed. Agreements get renegotiated, and after five years a developer can apply to be let off. The National Audit Office says the system "is not reliably delivering the infrastructure funding required for new developments".
4. Money that isn't spent can go back. The auditor again: "If Section 106 contributions are not spent as agreed, they may be returned to developers."

Nobody has to be crooked for this to happen. Each estate pays for a slice, and nobody pays for the whole thing. To open a surgery and a school with the first homes, you need a place planned and paid for up front, at the scale of a town.

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