Out-Law News 1 min. read

City Hall to offer expert viability advice


A new team created to increase housing in London might also offer viability advice to councils in the capital, the deputy mayor has indicated.

Earlier this month, deputy mayor James Murray made his first appearance before the London Assembly's housing committee. Murray said that increased resources could be given to the new team, to be based at City Hall, to work on viability assessments, according to a report by Planning.

This would enable them to apply a "consistent and thorough" approach on viability as well as offering expert advice on viability to help London boroughs, he said.

Murray confirmed that new mayor Sadiq Khan's team is drafting a proposal document on viability which will offer clear guidance for everyone and this will be published in "due course".

The deputy mayor identified viability as a key factor to increasing the number of affordable homes in the capital. Murray said "if the planning system has any role in delivering affordable housing, you have to bottom out the viability in question", according to Planning.

"We have a long-term strategic target of moving towards 50% affordable housing, and that will be arrived at through a range of measures, including planning, but also increased investment and public land, and so on," Murray said.

The London mayor will set a new housing target when the London Plan is revised. The current target stands at 42,000 new homes a year and it is expected that this will increase.

Planning expert Susanne Andreasen of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "Viability continues to be an area of focus for both local and national government. Whilst Murray did not offer much detail on the contents of the emerging guidance, mayor Sadiq Khan has been clear that he sees transparency around viability assessments as key to ensure the provision of affordable housing in the capital is maximised. The guidance is therefore likely to be focused on transparency."

"This would be in line with the emerging trend of transparency in the public interest winning out when balanced with the importance of preserving commercial confidentiality, as reflected in recent decisions by a number of councils to introduce mandatory requirements on developers to submit viability assessments for public disclosure when applying for planning permission," Andreasen said.

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