In its research, the HBF has revealed that £6bn of this is from Section 106 agreements with the rest raised through the Community Infrastructure Levy.

On average, councils hold £19m in unspent Section 106 contributions. Such payments are made by developers to fund affordable housing, infrastructure and amenities in the process of seeking planning permission.

Breaking down the £8bn figure, £817m of this is unspent affordable housing contributions that could have delivered 11,000 homes.

The rest of the money could have funded 126,000 new school places, 1000 sports halls, 4,700 community games areas and repaired around 12.6m potholes.

The research - formed from FOI responses from 208 local authorities - also found that 26% of this £8bn has been held for more than five years.

The top 20 councils collectively hold around £20bn with Oxfordshire County Council holding the largest sum of Section 106 payments with £288m.

Local authorities in communities with the greatest need for affordable housing held the greatest amounts of Section 106 payments, with six of the top 10 councils being in London.

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Section 106 payments often come with a stipulation that the money should be returned if held for too long. Here, the HBF found that 80 local authorities had returned £20.6m in total.

According to HBF, the fact this money has yet to be spent is evidence of a “lack of capacity of willingness to spend developer contributions” and that this risks “further fuelling misguided objections to development that cite a lack of infrastructure for local communities.”

The HBF is now calling on greater transparency for council infrastructure funding statements to clearly outline why projects are delayed and how long money has been held for.

 “Each year developers contribute around £7bn to local authorities for the provision of local infrastructure, affordable housing and education, recreational and health facilities but some councils are increasingly failing to invest this cash into the services that so desperately need it,” said Neil Jefferson, CEO at HBF.

"Whilst appreciating the pressures and constraints on councils, we simply have to find a better way to ensure this money is spent promptly to benefit local communities, support local services and drive growth.”