The Home Builders Federation (HBF) is renewing calls for a government-backed approach to speed up local authorities’ adoption of roads
UK road adoption often faces long delays, with some councils taking up to 12 years to take responsibility for new roads, new research from the HBF finds.
Especially around new housing developments, local authorities will specify the exact design of the roads, charge money to inspect them, and require residents to pay full council tax, all while taking unreasonably long times to adopt roads.
Highway bonds cause further issues
The research also shows that the average highway bond – the financial guarantee housebuilders must pay to councils to ensure new roads are built to standard – has risen by nearly 170% since 2018.
Furthermore, the longer that roads, amenities, and infrastructure remain unadopted, the more likely it is that homebuilders will need to appoint private management companies for maintenance, leading to further charges for residents on top of council tax, which should already be covering management costs.
The research also finds:
- Section 38 agreements, which are signed post planning agreement and after signing off on the technical specification of the road before construction work starts on new housing estate roads took just over four years on average from submission to adoption, with some taking up to 12 years
- Section 278 agreements, which are signed to allow developers to make changes to existing roads, can take up to a year to be approved, with a further two years from approval to completion.
- The average highway bond has risen from around £125,000 in 2018 to £338,000 in 2025/26, with individual bonds ranging from £15,400 to £1.4 million.
- Highway bonds averaged more than £7,000 per home, ranging from £110 to £20,000 per home between authorities.
- Inspection fees, the amount charged by the local authority to inspect the road prior to agreeing to adopt it, ranged from approximately 3% to 20% of the bond value.
Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the Home Builders Federation, said: “The Government’s ambition to increase housing supply relies heavily on private home builders to deliver, but central and local government needs to work with industry to ensure sites are viable if they want to see more homes getting built.
“Planning reform is an important first step, but if sites then face soaring highway costs, unpredictable requirements and years-long delays, their viability can quickly be undermined. It also increases costs for homeowners who have to pay management companies to maintain their roads, alongside full council tax that would ordinarily cover those costs.
“Government must address these wider barriers to delivery and create a consistent, transparent highway adoption process, so that planning permissions can translate into the homes the country needs.”
The report can be read in full here.
These issues extend to other infrastructure
In October last year, the HBF released research finding that in the last decade, just 10% of new build infrastructure had been adopted by local authorities, leaving 90% to be managed by private companies.
This was especially true for new sewers and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), where 97% and 98% remained unadopted by local authorities years later.
Roads are generally not adopted until sewers are, compounding the issue.
More information can be found here.
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