New funding to support development management in local planning authorities
The government has announced £8 million in development management funding to help local planning authorities with high economic growth potential.
Summary
In order to meet the 1.5 million homes and economic growth ambitions, it is essential that planning applications move through the system as quickly as possible, particularly those at the post-permission stage, where housing has the potential to be delivered more quickly but reserved matters and discharge of conditions approvals often take time.
The government is announcing that it will issue £8 million in development management funding this financial year to help local planning authorities with high economic growth potential and high volumes of major residential schemes at the post-outline stage.
This includes £3 million for the Greater London Authority (GLA) to support London boroughs with development management and to help them implement the measures in the emergency package announced on 23 October 2025.
Allocation criteria
Funding will be allocated on the basis of Glenigan data for residential development, to local planning authorities with over 1,000 residential units pending a decision, spread across a minimum of 10 applications for major development submitted between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2025.
This targets local planning authorities handling high volumes of units spread over multiple applications, where resourcing pressures are greatest and Planning Performance Agreements less common. These local planning authorities often deal with smaller or medium developments, likely to be delivered faster and involve SME developers, maximising impact on housing delivery.
Funding will also be allocated to those local planning authorities within AI Growth Zones and the Oxford-to-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
Eligible local planning authorities will be awarded a share of the £5 million national development management fund. Eligible London authorities will receive their share of funding via the £3 million GLA award.
Expression of Interest
Eligible local planning authorities will be contacted by MHCLG and invited to submit their Expressions of Interest in January 2026.
The Expression of Interest will ask local planning authorities that are eligible for development management funding to confirm:
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They have been informed in writing by MHCLG that they are eligible for development management funding
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What types of activities funding will be used to support
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That they commit to have proposals in place by March 2026 on how they will spend the funding
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That they agree to collaborate with MHCLG over monitoring and evaluation requirements if required
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That their section 151 officer, or deputy section 151 officer, supports the Expression of Interest
Timeline
Indicative timescales for the funding are set out below:
| Action | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Publish details of funding on gov.uk and contact eligible local planning authorities | w/c 15 December |
| Launch EOI process | w/c 12 January |
| EOI process ends | w/c 26 January |
| Successful local planning authorities notified | w/c 9 February |
| Make payments to LPAs | w/c 16 February |
Contact us
Should you have any questions about this funding, please contact the Implementation funding team: implementationfunding@communities.gov.uk
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