Affordable Housing and Viability Assessments

The government is apparently finally thinking of reviewing viability assessments on housing developments.  This is one of the major barriers to securing more affordable housing as there is (I am told) good case law for developers to demand a 20% profit margin for any given plan.  They can then use this figure to reduce the proportion of affordable housing to well below the London Plan's 50% target and there is very little a planning authority can do about it.

Until I saw this Guardian piece, I wasn't aware of the sheer scale of the problem.  It sounds as if, inadequate although the Brent performance may seem, it is far better than other major urban areas.  

So it is good that the government has finally noticed the problem, a mere seven years into office, as sorting it out may need legislation.

However, whether it can be trusted to follow through is another thing.  The Tory Party has current owner occupiers as part of its core support, and the loss of its overall majority last year demonstrates the danger of taking on your core support.  One can't also help but notice that Tory politicians are still sounding quite doubtful about building in their own areas.  they seem to expect the new housing to appear somewhere else.