Affordable Housing and Viability Assessment Process

Applicants should engage with the borough, and the Mayor for referable applications, at pre-application stage to determine whether a scheme can follow the Fast Track Route. If an applicant considers that a scheme is not capable of providing the threshold level of affordable housing and meeting other relevant criteria this should be raised at pre-application stage.

Where relevant policies in local Development Plan Documents are up to date, if an applicant wishes to make the case that viability should be considered on a site-specific basis, Policy DF1 in the Mayor's London Plan requires that they should provide clear evidence of the specific issues that would prevent delivery, in line with relevant Development Plan policy, prior to submission of an application.

Where it is accepted that the viability of a specific site should be considered as part of an application, the borough, and the Mayor for referable applications, will determine the weight to be given to a viability assessment alongside other material considerations, ensuring that developments remain acceptable in planning terms.

Viability assessments should be tested rigorously and undertaken in line with the Mayor’s Affordable Housing and Viability SPG. They should be provided at pre-application stage and no later than submission of the application.

The assessment of viability is an additional procedure that requires the commitment of dedicated and suitably experienced officers and / or external consultants by the borough, and the Mayor for referable applications. The costs of this process should be met by the applicant to ensure that the borough and the GLA are adequately resourced to assess the information submitted, and that they are not disadvantaged in their ability to carry out their other planning functions.

The borough’s cost of assessment should be discussed and agreed with the borough at an early stage, including the cost of viability assessment and any specialist advice that is required. If additional information is submitted at a later stage the borough’s costs for assessing this should also be met.

For referable applications, applicants will be required to pay the GLA’s costs for assessing viability. From 1st February 2020 an upfront payment of £10,000 plus VAT is required to meet the cost of case officer project management, specialist viability officer review and management team input. This relates to the GLA’s assessment of an application at Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the referral process, including consideration of the S106 agreement and viability review clauses.

Where evidence, including viability information, is submitted relating to a utilities site to demonstrate the existence of substantial decontamination, enabling and remediation costs, and a 35 per cent affordable housing threshold is applicable, applicants will be required to pay £5000 plus VAT to cover the GLA’s costs for reviewing this. If less than 35 per cent affordable housing is provided, the scheme will be considered under the Viability Tested Route and the approach referred to in the previous paragraph will apply.

These costs do not include the cost of additional expertise that the GLA may need to acquire to inform its consideration of the application in relation to specialist matters such as construction costs and property valuation. Where this is necessary the costs of such specialist advice will be additional to the GLA officer costs. The standard charge does not include the cost of assessing information submitted as part of a viability review mechanism and determination of the outcome of the review where the GLA is involved in this process.