Considers the findings of a new Joseph Rowntree Foundation publication "Land and finance for affordable housing", which concludes that social landlords are finally getting to grips, 15 years after its introduction, with the s106 mechanism that allows them to negotiate with developers to agree to build affordable housing in exchange for planning permission and that they are negotiating better outcomes than before. However the increasing dependence on the s106 route in contrast to other traditional ways of funding affordable housing is masking a decline in the overall total of affordable homes being built. Appended are comments on the proposed overhaul of s106 as part of the ODPM's new five-year plan, a s106 new affordable housing case study, New Providence Wharf in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets and a note on the value of model s106 agreements such as pioneered by Basingstoke and Deane local planning authority.