Insights from JLES at the HBF Technical Conference 2025

JLES Managing Director Speaks at HBF Technical Conference 2025 on the Future of Road and Sewer Adoptions

Earlier this month, JLES Group’s Managing Director, Jamie Foster, joined leading industry voices at the Home Builders Federation (HBF) Technical Conference 2025 in Birmingham. The annual event brought together technical specialists, developers, and policymakers to discuss key issues shaping the future of housebuilding.

As an invited speaker, Jamie drew on his 31 years of experience in road and sewer adoptions to deliver a presentation on one of the most pressing challenges currently facing the industry, the road and sewer adoption process and the barriers that continue to delay completion and handover.

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The Slow Lane to Adoption

Jamie’s talk built upon the findings of HBF’s recent report, The Slow Lane to Adoption, which highlights the lack of consistency and growing costs associated with road adoptions across England and Wales.

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With reference to long-standing data, including the Department for Transport’s1972 survey identifying around 40,000 unadopted roads and the NHBC’s 2015report noting over 10,000 outstanding road and sewer bonds, Jamie illustrated just how systemic the issue has become.

Challenges Developers Face

In his presentation, Jamie outlined the main challenges that continue to hinder adoption progress, including:

1. A lack of national consistency and clear guidance under the 1980 Highways Act.
2. Limited resources and funding within local authorities.
3. Varying design standards and inspection regimes across 145 different councils.
4. Unclear requirements for inspection fees, commuted sums, and bond release.
5. Ongoing issues with unadopted sewers and legacy outfall connections since the 2011 transfer under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

These challenges contribute to rising costs, extended timescales, and uncertainty for developers, often stalling site completions.

Driving Change Through Collaboration

Jamie’s recommendations called for a fundamental mindset shift across government, local authorities, and developers. His proposals include

• A full modernisation of adoption standards.

• National design guides and mandatory build standards to ensure consistency.

• A pragmatic approach to clearing adoption backlogs.

• The creation of an independent ombudsman for road adoptions to mediate disputes.

• Stronger cross-sector collaboration, led by working groups of developers, consultants, and adopting authorities.

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How JLES Supports Developers

At JLES, our mission is to help developers accelerate the adoption process and unlock site completions faster. We provide a complete adoption management service, covering:^‍

Technical consultancy – identifying and resolving non-compliances. Remedial works management – coordinating works to adoption standard.

• Legal and bond negotiation – reducing financial exposure and expediting bond release. Liaison with authorities and water companies – ensuring communication and approvals progress efficiently.

By combining technical expertise with practical experience, JLES helps developers reduce costs, clear backlogs, and achieve adoption, even on the most complex sites.

JLES Group works in partnership with national and regional housebuilders to deliver adoption and infrastructure solutions across the UK.

Our experienced team of engineers, project managers, and legal specialists help developers achieve adoption success.

Learn more about how JLES can help you move your developments out of the slow lane and into successful adoption, Contact us to discuss your project.