For 100-homes a-year Kent housebuilder Fernham Homes, the permission secured at Love Lane in Faversham last summer to build 154 houses should have been a significant boost. One year on, however, and managing director Sean Ellis says the firm has not had one viable bid for the 54 affordable homes on the site.

The scheme has been out to a host of housing associations in an attempt to find a buyer, but building work still cannot start. In fact, only one of the 20 registered providers approached to take on the homes put in any bid at all, which Ellis says was at a level “well below what we had been prepared to accept”.

This was not a unique experience. Ellis says the same thing is happening around so-called section 106 affordable homes on every scheme he is bringing forward. “It’s every site at the moment. This is one of the most critical issues we face,” the former Berkeley Group director says.