They’re built and finished, so why are hundreds of affordable homes sitting empty?

Across Platform Housing Group’s developments, highways and utility delays have become the one of the biggest causes of stalled completions, alongside planning. At one of our Midlands sites, delays in securing road alteration approval incurred a cost of over £1m in lost rent and financing costs. An entire year of delivery was lost following repeated design changes caused by staff turnover within the local highways team.

The result was almost 100 affordable homes left empty while 10,000 people remained on the local authority’s waiting list, including almost 2,000 children left in temporary accommodation.

“Without consistent standards or adequate resources, even the most well-equipped teams cannot provide the certainty the housing sector needs”

In one local authority, 40 affordable homes were completed but could not be occupied because the council had no qualified engineer to approve a retaining structure. In another local authority, a late redesign added over £1m in costs and delayed 137 homes. At another site, a standard road construction approval took 19 months, impacting 113 homes.

These examples reflect what is happening nationally. The Home Builders Federation’s recent data shows that the average time to approve road designs has increased from two weeks to two years. Meanwhile, securing approvals for alterations of existing highways (Section 278) and the construction of new highways (Section 38) ranges from two to 103 weeks and four to 286 weeks respectively.

All these challenges need highlighting, but we’re not here to pin the blame on local authorities. Officers are doing their best under immense pressure. Years of underinvestment have left many highways departments understaffed or reliant on consultants with limited local knowledge.

Officers are juggling multiple schemes with no statutory timescales for response. Without consistent standards or adequate resources, even the most well-equipped teams cannot provide the certainty the housing sector needs.

The human consequences are severe. One family of six missed out on local school places because they were not living at their new address by the application deadline. Another family is paying £300 a month to store furniture while still renting elsewhere.

Elsewhere, a teacher spent the summer living abroad with relatives because her new home was not ready, resulting in significant disruption including severed local ties and emotional strain. Buyers have lost mortgage offers and faced higher repayments. Families have been trapped in temporary accommodation, paying twice for a home they cannot yet occupy.

Others are paying a much heavier price. A report by the APPG for Households in Temporary Accommodation says 80 children died while living in temporary accommodation between 2023 and 2024.

Every delayed home keeps another family in limbo and adds to the financial burden on councils already spending millions on temporary housing. With almost 50% of our 1500 homes set to be delivered this year experiencing issues, around 350 families may miss out, delayed by an average of five weeks, incurring costs of £525,000 in temporary accommodation.

Everyone loses, including local authorities that could spend that money on other resources.

“Every delayed home keeps another family in limbo and adds to the financial burden on councils already spending millions on temporary housing”

There are practical, immediate solutions. Firstly, national adoptable standards for roads and related infrastructure must be introduced.

At present, every local authority has its own design guide and interpretation of what is acceptable. One council may approve a layout that another rejects entirely. At one of our sites, for example, the development straddles two local authority boundaries, meaning the same stretch of road must satisfy two different officers with their own requirements. A consistent national standard, supported by local guidance, would bring fairness, clarity and speed.

Statutory timescales for highways agreements are urgently needed. At present, officers can take as long as necessary to respond, leaving families and developers waiting indefinitely.

Legal timescales for Section 278 and Section 38 agreements would create accountability and expose where resources are insufficient. Importantly, this would help councils make the case for additional funding and staffing by evidencing the true scale of the backlog.

Elsewhere, collaboration between housing, highways and utilities must improve. Too often, these teams work in isolation, leading to duplication, avoidable delays and wasted money.

Early, joined-up planning could prevent months of unnecessary hold-ups. Co-ordinated scheduling of works, for example, aligning water, power and road closures, would stop the repeated digging up of new roads and reduce disruption for local communities.

Finally, highways departments need investment and training. Engineers, planners and legal officers are public servants doing vital work in an overstretched system. Supporting them is the only way to break this cycle. As the Competition and Markets Authority has already recognised, the case for common standards and mandatory adoption is overwhelming.

Among housing associations, Platform Housing Group is one of the biggest developers nationally and is operating across over 100 local authorities in the Midlands. We see the challenges daily: planning delays, funding pressures and skills shortages. Yet the highway bottleneck remains one of the most neglected issues, and it needs to be addressed.

With the right focus, this can be fixed. Let’s give the sector a fighting chance of delivering 1.5 million new homes.

Paula Heatley, director of delivery and sales, Platform Housing Group