HCA Development Appraisal Tool

Homes England (previously the Homes and Communities Agency) publishes a widely-used Development Appraisal Tool (DAT) for small and medium to medium/large projects with a development period of up to 15 years.

It is a spreadsheet-based, site-specific development viability tool intended to inform investment decisions by local authorities and developers, but it can be used as part of a challenge to demands in planning applications, in particular in relation to the effect of affordable housing requirements on project viability.

Version 4, published on 13 November 2014 has 5 phases for all tenures and infrastructure, enabling longer-term schemes to be assessed. It also takes account of changes to planning policy, such as changes to the Community Infrastructure Levy.

The tool can be used to:

• Analyse whether planning obligations are viable.
• Help local authorities assess the balance between affordable housing and other planning obligations.
• Assess the case for financial support under the affordable homes programme.
• Assess the potential land value where a local authority is considering a disposal.
• Bid for the development of public land under the Homes and Communities Agency’s Development Partner Panel 2 process.

The bid comparator can be used to compare a number of different submissions.

In London, the Greater London Authority (GLA) Affordable Housing Development Control Toolkit is also available, and there are a number of commercially available viability testing tools.

[edit] Find out more

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Affordable homes.
• Community infrastructure levy.
• Homes England.
• Planning obligations.
• Planning permission.

[edit] External references

• DHCA, Development Appraisal Tool.