Almost two-thirds of senior council officers have said they are seeing construction projects delayed, despite the key role of local authorities in creating the wave of new housing and infrastructure promised by Labour.

Before Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast on Tuesday, a survey of senior council officers showed that 40% do not think the local authority they work for is well placed to follow through on its construction plans.

Local authority finances have been under sustained pressure for more than a decade. Labour recently announced a shake-up of the funding formula for England’s local councils, to redirect resources from affluent parts of the country towards more deprived areas.

Among those surveyed, 64% reported project delays, with as many as 94% calling for more certainty about future financing – such as multi-year funding settlements. When asked to state in their own words what was causing the hold-up, many just wrote “funding”.

More than a third (34%) said Labour’s radical reorganisation of local government could also create delays in the short term, while 40% pointed to skills shortages. Regeneration, housing and transport projects were identified as those most subject to potential disruption.

The survey was carried out by the Local Government Information Unit and the public sector procurement body Scape.

Scape’s deputy chief executive, Caroline Compton-James, said: “Local authorities across the country really want to step up. They’re galvanised. They want to deliver for local communities, and there’s a real will and ambition to deliver. But there are some constraints that they are feeling.”

She added: “The ask for long-term funding settlements, where local authorities and their partners will be able to invest in pipelines of work across those settlements, is really key.”

Labour came to power promising to be the party of “the builders, not the blockers” and has reformed planning legislation to allow more projects to go ahead. It has pledged to enable the building of 1.5m homes in England during this parliament – although there is scepticism in the industry over whether the target can be achieved.

Reeves also changed the government’s fiscal rules in her first budget, to allow a significant increase in borrowing to fund investment projects, including transport infrastructure and social housing, and is expected to promise more planning changes in a speech later this month.

But council officers cited rising costs and policy uncertainty as obstacles to getting projects successfully built – with problems often occurring at the earlier scoping, planning or contracting stages.

Councils are expected to play a key role in Labour’s flagship Pride in Place scheme, which is allocating up to £5bn to local areas across the UK, with new neighbourhood boards deciding how the money will be spent locally.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Act brings seismic reforms to a planning system that for too long has held back growth. It will break down barriers in the planning system, making it easier for councils to seize land and approve developments for much-needed homes and critical infrastructure.

“The recent local government finance settlement is our most significant move yet to make English local government more sustainable and certain. We have made over £78bn available for council finances next year, an increase of over 6% compared with 2025-26.”