HCA Development Appraisal Tool
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) 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.
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