I would be interested in finding out how LPAs are dealing with economic viability assessments (to determine Affordable Housing and other contributions) for Outline Planning Applications. The problem my colleagues in DC envisage in securing Affordable Housing (either on-site or a commuted sum) is that the information in relation to house types & sizes is ether likely to be indicative only or not there, and phasing and sales plans are unlikely to be available at all. Have any other authorities found this to be a problem? The only solution we can think of is to agree indicative dwelling types / sizes / phasing / sales prices with the developer as the basis of an appraisal, perhaps allowing a certain amount of flexibility. We could then use a S106 agreement to fix this (with a degree of variance allowed) as the basis of any provision / commuted sum, and if the reserved matters application varied beyond this we could refuse to approve the reserved matters. What do people think of this approach?
