How Today´s Planning System Puts All of the Cost Burdens on Developers

Today, Paul is once again joined by the Director of Town Centre Regeneration Ltd, David Van Der Lande. He is a land development consultant who specialises in assessing viability and land assembly. David is also a compulsory purchase expert. This time he and Paul discuss land valuation, the impact of affordable housing requirements, access to finance, town centre regeneration and more. KEY TAKEAWAYS Paul and David share real-world examples to demonstrate how challenging ticking the viability box has become. It is possible to overcome local authorities who use policy to slow development. But, doing so, is time-consuming. Housing associations do not want to have to manage groups of 2 or 3 affordable homes scattered throughout an area. Raising the trigger level for affordable housing to say 25 houses will result in more homes being built, overall. Most councils will not accept the need for there to be a bigger profit margin when the market is falling. Large developers have access to cheaper finance than smaller developers. This fact is not taken into account by planners. Currently, developers are shouldering all of the costs of addressing society´s problems e.g. affordable housing. BEST MOMENTS “Most policies, allow the flex in the affordable housing elements.” “The actual costs to the council increase substantially for every appeal that they lose.” “There are ways to cut through the complications.” Want to improve your ability to quickly assess the viability of a development site? go to https://bitly.com/MLASCORE. There you will find Paul´s free MLA Scorecard – a short quiz that tests your current land viability abilities and helps you to instantly improve them. Over the past 40 years, Paul hasachieved 100% planning application success. So, you are sure to learn a ton. ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-van-der-lande-2b947413 Previous episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/the-role-compulsory-purchase- orders-will-play-in-uk/id1750859336?i=1000716397419 ABOUT THE HOST  Paul Higgs is a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor with 40+ years 39; experience in land, planning and development and a 100% success track record in winning planning consents. Paul undertook his first refurb project when he was just 17 and then worked his way up from labouring on building sites to becoming Head of Land for renowned plc housebuilder, Barratt Developments. He managed to escape the corporate world in 2002 to set up what is now a multimillion-pound award-winning property development company, Millbank Group. In 2013 Paul founded the Millbank Land Academy, the UK’s first training company dedicated to property development; to teach established and aspiring developers the insider secrets the big housebuilders don’t want you to know!  Paul is also a founding investor and former board director of the industry-leading PropTech Co, LandTech, and has lectured on Advanced Development Valuations on the MSc Property Development at London South Bank University.   CONTACT METHOD LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-higgs Millbank Land Academy: https://www.millbanklandacademy.co.uk Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paulhiggsofficial YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@InsidePropertyDevelopment This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/