Out-Law News 1 min. read

Greenwich Council consults on publication of viability assessments


Greenwich Council is consulting on a potential new requirement that developers publish a detailed viability report if their scheme does not meet the Council's affordable housing target. 

The Council's affordable housing target for a development with 10 or more houses is currently set at 35%. If a developer's proposal does not meet this target then the developer has to produce a viability report, which they can request to stay confidential.

The Council has published a consultation document which proposes that this viability report should be included in the Council's proposed new local information requirements list for planning applications (local list). The local list will set out all of the information the Council deems necessary in order to "register, assess and determine planning applications." 

This information includes an affordable housing statement and a viability assessment.  If the applicant does not provide the information specified then the application will be considered "invalid and will delay the processing of the application until the information is supplied."  

The document sets out what information the viability assessment needs to include and states that the assessment will need to be "un-redacted" and submitted with the planning application. The Council also advises that "applicants should be aware that the assessment will be made available in the same manner as other documents that form part of the submission."

The consultation period is for six weeks and closes on 22 June 2015.  The local list has to be reviewed every two years.

The Council's cabinet member for regeneration and transport, Danny Thorpe, said the new requirement "is about transparency for local people".

"This will now allow the whole process to be far more transparent, making the viability studies publicly available as part of the planning documents means the Royal Borough and residents alike can see precisely why a developer might claim they cannot meet our affordable housing targets," he said.

"We believe we’re the first local authority in the country to be doing this, looking at policy which insists on these studies being in the public domain," said Thorpe.

Planning expert Alexis Coleman of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "Greenwich is effectively proposing to by-pass potential  argument with applicants about the confidentiality of viability reports by stating upfront that viability reports must be un-redacted and will be treated like any other application document and made public.  This is in the context of recent ICO rulings and case law gradually eroding the extent to which viability reports remain confidential on commercial sensitivity grounds."

"The proposed local validation checklist sets out 12 items a viability report will need to include, so it will be difficult for applicants to circumvent this requirement by only providing a high level type of viability report," said Coleman. "Applicants will need to carefully consider at the outset the repercussions of disclosing potentially commercial sensitive information against the feasibility of providing policy compliant affordable housing."

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