Islington outlines plan to publish affordable housing viability assessments

A London council has warned developers that it will publish the viability assessments they use to highlight those that are contrived to try to avoid planning conditions requiring affordable housing.

The London Borough of Islington said it faced severe housing pressures and wanted to discourage developers from putting forward assessments that claimed their schemes would not stack up commercially if they contained the volume of affordable homes sought by the council.

These claims would in future be exposed in public in all but limited cases, a consultation on a supplementary planning document said.

It noted that applicants typically sought to “place confidentiality restrictions on viability information”, including by exemptions from disclosure under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on grounds of commercial confidentiality.

The council noted that both the Information Commissioner’s Office and First Tier Tribunal had concluded in cases put before them either that there was insufficient evidence to show that disclosure would cause an adverse effect, or that the public interest outweighed this.

Members of the public should be able to satisfy themselves whether viability evidence is reasonable and robust so as to maintain confidence in the planning system, it said.

“For these reasons the council considers that information submitted as a part of, and in support of a viability assessment should be treated transparently and be available for wider scrutiny,” the consultation said.

“In submitting information, applicants should do so in the knowledge that this would be made publicly available alongside other application documents, apart from in exceptional circumstances.”

The council foresaw “there would be very few exceptions”.

It said it had received appraisals that purported to show projects would incur significant deficits with the level of affordable housing the council sought to impose.

“This would also appear to be at odds with general market conditions and the high rates of development within the borough (where not explained by circumstances specific to the site)”, the consultation said.

Explaining the need to ensure a supply of affordable homes, the document described Islington as the most densely populated local authority in the country having accommodated extremely high levels of development in recent years and far exceeding it's housing targets.

“The extent of delivery in Islington is indicative of a buoyant property market.,” its said, noting the average house price was £674,598, the fifth highest level nationally per square metre having risen by 49% in five years to £6,868.

Although it contains some of the he country’s most affluent areas, the borough is also marked poverty with 53% of residents living in areas ranked among the most deprived 10% in the country.