Developer Wins Appeal Against Affordable Housing Contribution

A developer of a housing scheme in Oldham won’t have to make a £283,000 contribution towards affordable housing after a planning inspector allowed an appeal because it was no longer economically viable to make the contribution. Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council granted planning permission to developer Tamewater Developments Limited in 2008 for a 46-home scheme. Under the permission, Tamewater was obliged to make four instalments of payments to the council in lieu of the provision of affordable housing. The developer had already made the first payment of £100,000 but applied to have the remaining contributions removed under provisions introduced by the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013. These provisions allow for applications to be made to vary affordable housing requirements contained in a planning obligation if those requirements make the scheme unviable. Read more on 24dash.

Watchdog Criticised Over Financial Ratings

The watchdog overseeing housing associations in England has come in for criticism from MPs. Select committee chairman Clive Betts said the Homes and Communities Agency's reluctance to downgrade associations' financial viability meant "nobody would have a clue" if they were in trouble.  All but one of England's housing associations were downgraded by the ratings agency Moody's in May. Moody's said the move was prompted by a "reassessment of the likelihood" of a financial bail out from the government. But despite the mass downgrade, industry regulator the HCA gave only one housing association - the Cosmopolitan Housing Group - the lowest V4 financial viability rating. Mr Betts, chairman of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, said this "amounted to a futile exercise in locking the stable door long after the horse had bolted". Read more on the BBC website.

Row Over Housing Land Viability Test

A row has broken out over guidance designed to make councils take into account the economic viability of land they allocate for new homes. The planning guidance, published by the Local Housing Delivery Steering Group, advises councils how to test the viability of sites, as required in the government’s National Planning Policy Framework. This is supposed to be in order to ensure that it is actually possible to develop on the land allocated for housing in councils’ local plans. However, a row has broken out over how the guidance assesses the likely price at which land-owners will sell sites to developers. The guidance says this should be calculated on the basis of what it is worth under its existing use plus a small premium. But opponents say that land is unlikely to come forward for development unless landowners can sell it at the market value it commands as a housing site. Download a copy of the guidance from the Local Government Association website.