Planning policy for housing (PPS3) expects Local Planning Authorities to define their approach to seeking developer contributions for affordable housing and to make the best possible use of planning obligations to improve its delivery, through mixed tenure developments. This requires effective, realistic and viable affordable housing targets and thresholds. Use of this Economic Appraisal Tool at an early stage in the planning process will assist local authorities and housing developers predict and agree the viability of proposed levels of affordable housing planning obligations.
The National Affordable Housing Programme 2008-11 Prospectus asks grant seekers to demonstrate the additionality that grant investment will deliver over and above on-site developer contributions, by use of an economic assessment of the site, which ensures grant does not inflate residual land value. The Corporation’s preference is for bids for grant on Section 106 sites to be supported by a validated financial assessment of the site as a whole, and grant seekers are encourage to use the Economic Appraisal Tool model for this purpose.
The appraisal tool consists of an Excel spreadsheet model and a PDF user manual.
Please use the online form for questions and feedback.
The Corporation retains copyright of this model. It may be downloaded and used as a tool to analyse the economics of a given development site for discussion with the Housing Corporation or Planning Authority.
The Corporation does not provide support to external users of the model, other than providing the user manual, but advice and support may be obtained from consultants GVA Grimley and Bespoke Property Group, who devised the tool and wrote the manual, on terms to be agreed between the parties.
Neither the Corporation nor its consultants, take responsibility for the consequences of decisions made using information or outputs from the model.
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