The government’s 2018 Planning Policy Guidance gives a succinct answer to this question: Viability appraisal is a process of assessing whether a site is financially viable, by looking at whether the value generated by a development is more than the Benchmark Land Value. This process involves looking at the key elements of gross development value, costs, existing land value, landowner premium, and developer return.
S106 Management’s viability reports utilise industry standard specialist toolkits, such as the Housing Corporation Economic Appraisal Tool (HCEAT), the Three Dragons Development Appraisal Tool Kit, and the Greater London Authority Affordable Housing Toolkit (GLA Toolkit) to accurately represent a scheme’s viability and assess whether S106 contributions reduce profit margin below the universally accepted 15-20%.
Our reports will be welcomed by planning officers at any stage of a planning application and speed up the planning process. In many cases, a viability report will be required to accompany your planning application before it will even be validated and registered.