Financial Viability Appraisers Framework

The London Borough of Hillingdon (LBH) is inviting companies to participate in a framework agreement with the Council to provide Financial Viability Appraisals for its planning department.

The Council, as a Local Planning Authority, often requires that planning applicants/developers agree to meet planning obligations (secured by way of legal agreement) to mitigate harmful impacts associated with development proposals.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was introduced in March 2012, and sets out the Government are planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied. Paragraphs 203 to 206 of the NPPF deal with planning obligations and make it clear that Local Planning Authorities must take into account the development economics of any particular planning application. In particular the NPPF states: 'Where obligations are being sought or revised, local planning authorities should take account of changes in market conditions over time and, wherever appropriate, be sufficiently flexible to prevent planned development being stalled.'

Planning obligations often take the form of financial contributions or the provision of onsite affordable housing. It is important that the Council strikes the correct balance between mitigating impacts, without stalling development.

Developers use Financial Viability Appraisals (FVA's) to demonstrate to the Council that the development finances for a particular proposal are such that the scheme cannot meet all required planning obligations (such as the Council's Affordable Housing policy requirements) and remain financially viable.

The Council requires the services of appropriately qualified, independent third party financial consultants to analyse the accuracy of FVA's, due to the technical nature of this work, to ensure impartiality of advice and to ensure the Council is obtaining the maximum amount planning gain from development proposals.

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