Majority of affordable homes lost due to legal loophole


Property developers are dodging their commitment to building thousands of affordable homes each year due to a legal loophole, new research has revealed.

Figures obtained through Freedom of Information law show developers have sidestepped local planning policy to avoid building 79 per cent of social homes to which they had initially committed, due to a legal loophole called a “viability assessment”.

A sample of 11 local authorities across nine cities in England shows developers were able to first win planning permission by promising they would build a required number of affordable homes, but later go back to the council and said they couldn’t build them because it would reduce their profit margin. Source: The Independent