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Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
Open group | Started - July 2012 | Last activity - Yesterday

Affordable housing - charging for site specific viability assessments

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Liz Copeland, modified 10 Years ago.

Affordable housing - charging for site specific viability assessments

New Member Post: 1 Join Date: 17/05/11 Recent Posts

Hi All,

This is a question I'm posting on behalf of Stephanie Robson at East Riding Council.

Does anyone have any examples of how much local authorities charge for a site specific viability assessment when an applicant does not intend to meet the requirements of an affordable housing policy due to the impact on the economic viability of the proposal?

Is the charge a fixed charge for considering any viability assessment, a sliding scale depending on time spent considering the appraisal or a sliding scale depending on the size of the development and how much does it cost the applicant?

Thanks.

affordable housing viability assessments
Former Member, modified 10 Years ago.

Affordable housing - charging for site specific viability assessments

Hi Liz

I responded directly to Stephanie's email on this topic.

To sum up charges depend on a site by site basis as the work involved will differ depending on the size and complexity of the site. Our policy states developers must meet any reasonable costs so we would get a quote from consulants and agree that with the developer prior to commission.

Mike Davies, modified 10 Years ago.

Affordable housing - charging for site specific viability assessments

New Member Posts: 4 Join Date: 04/02/14 Recent Posts

We have just been through our Core Strategy Public Examination and the policy around charging for Viability Assessments was challenged. The Inspector concluded that it was the LPA's responsibility to meet any charge associated with scrutinising the viability assessment as we should have expertise in house to undertake such work.

We still include a charge for this work within our pre-app charges and will probably continue to charge when an application is submitted with a viability assessment, but I think if the applicant refused to pay we would be backed into a corner and have to pick the ciosts up ourselves. 

Former Member, modified 10 Years ago.

Affordable housing - charging for site specific viability assessments

I think there are very few authorities that have that experience in house - most authorities that I come across, which is a lot - would send all contention or sizeable approaisals out and some would send all out. For small scale development most would probably just question it themself but not send it out. The ability to fix a cost might be based on the contract that the LPA has with the viability consultant.