The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has taken over the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service, changing which public body runs the channel used to share details of uncontracted and unsold affordable homes from new developments.
The change was recorded in updated government guidance on 9 October. The service holds information on affordable homes that housebuilders have not yet contracted with a provider or sold through the expected route. It is not a public property-search website and it does not allow individual households to register for a home. Instead, it is designed for housebuilders, registered providers of social housing and local authorities.
Its purpose is practical: to give those organisations a common route for identifying opportunities that are already tied to planning agreements. A housebuilder that is accepted onto the service receives a secure spreadsheet through which it can enter information about homes available on particular sites, including expected delivery dates and contact details. Registered providers and councils that are granted access can search, filter and view the opportunities supplied by housebuilders.
The service concerns homes linked to Section 106 obligations. These are legally binding planning obligations entered into in connection with a development proposal. They can be used where they are necessary to make a development acceptable in planning terms and can help address local infrastructure and affordable-housing needs. They remain separate from a general open-market sales process, which is why a shared operational record can matter when an agreed affordable-housing route has not yet been finalised.
For London, the guidance contains a specific access arrangement. The Greater London Authority can view information relating to sites in the capital, while the Ministry and Homes England can view information submitted across the service. That gives the capital’s strategic authority sight of London opportunities without turning the database into a public allocation list.
The transfer changes the body responsible for the service rather than the underlying planning obligations attached to developments. Providers and councils still need to make their own decisions about whether a site suits their requirements, and housebuilders remain responsible for the information they submit. The Ministry explicitly says that it does not endorse the data entered by participants or promote one opportunity over another.
That distinction is important for anyone following the issue of affordable supply. An entry on the service is not a promise that homes are ready to let, sell or allocate. It may describe a future delivery date, and the information is intended to facilitate contact between organisations rather than replace due diligence, funding decisions or the legal steps attached to a development.
Even so, the handover is a notable administrative development. Affordable housing often depends on multiple parties completing connected planning, delivery and contracting arrangements. The clearing service is intended to make one part of that process more visible to the providers and councils capable of taking homes forward. Its move to the Ministry places that matching function directly within the department responsible for national housing policy.
The updated guidance also preserves limits on access. Organisations must authenticate their registration, and housebuilders can see and edit only the opportunities they submit. Registered providers and local authorities can search the shared list, while the London authority’s access is restricted to capital sites. Those controls underline that the service is a professional housing-delivery tool, not a consumer-facing portal.
