The Department acknowledged that it originally intended to provide LPAs with updated guidance on how to handle financial viability challenges in Spring 2025. However, it explained that advising LPAs on how they should deliver value for local people while also allowing for some degree of local variation was complex, and it therefore now planned to issue the guidance “as soon as possible” in 2025. The Department added that it would include the use of late-stage viability reviews as part of this updated guidance.33 In its letter to us after the session, the Department clarified that it intended to use the guidance to ensure the viability system works to optimise developer contributions, allowing negotiation only where genuinely necessary.34 Unsold Section 106 affordable homes