Bexley Council has said it would rather spend money well than quickly after it was revealed £2.5m handed over by developers during planning talks has not yet been spent.

The money comes from a planning law called section 106, which allows councils to receive money from developers in exchange for granting planning permission.

Figures obtained by this newspaper shows Bexley Council has £2,537,425 made in the last five years sitting unspent in its bank accounts.

Whilst most of the money has been earmarked for specific future projects, almost £49,000 has not yet been allocated.

The money often has stipulations on how and where it can be spent, usually on infrastructure projects such as highways, affordable housing or attractive communities.

The data was revealed after a Freedom of Information act asking the council how much s106 money has been received, unspent and unallocated since 2013.

In the last five years, Bexley Council has received £5.3m in S106 payments, £2.5m of which is allocated but unspent, and £48,927 unallocated.

A spokesman for the council said: “S106 legal agreements are an important way of ensuring that local communities gain from new developments and we work hard to ensure that they make a positive difference in the areas concerned.

“Most of the money has either been allocated or spent, but our priority is to ensure that it is invested well, rather than quickly.

“In order to deliver the infrastructure necessary to reduce the impact of development, we often combine a number of contributions over time to pay for larger-scale facilities or infrastructure.  This can delay allocating and then spending the money.

“S106 can only be applied once spending has occurred, so projects being delivered in 2018/19 will have funding applied at the end of the current financial year. Reconciling the figures at this stage will give a more accurate picture of S106 spending and significantly reduce the amount that appears as ‘unspent’.”

Unlike other authorities, Bexley Council has not had to hand any money back to developers for running out of time to spend it – as is the case in Leicester where nearly £1m was returned.

The council said that out of the £48k that has not been earmarked specifically yet, £16k will be used on sports projects and £32k will be on community projects.

The spokesman added: “The Sports S106 is made up of small contributions ranging from £67 to £2,598. These will be brought together for the right projects.

 “The Community S106 unallocated funds are under review."

Of the money allocated by unspent, £842k has been earmarked for affordable housing projects, while £1m has been allocated for transport infrastructure.

The National Housing Federation, an affordable housing campaign group, said S106 money must be used to make a difference.

Duncan Neish, Policy Officer at the National Housing Federation, said: “Section 106 funding is one of the most important ways of delivering new affordable homes, so it is important that it is used effectively.

“It should be allocated as fully as possible, with a focus on investing it in ways that will make a big difference for local people, including by building desperately-needed affordable housing.”