1,000 signatures reached
To: Liverpool Council
Make housing developers be transparent in Liverpool
Require developers to make their viability assessments public if they claim they cannot meet council targets of affordable housing in new developments.
Why is this important?
Current planning law states that if a developer will make less than 20% profit on a new development, they can ignore a council's regulations about building affordable and social housing.
Leaked documents from several developers have shown that the maths they use to work out their profit margins is either hidden from the public or purposefully misleading, allowing them to claim they will make less than 20% profit on a development by undervaluing the prices of the houses they will sell and over-costing the labour.
To combat this Islington, Greenwich, Lambeth and Bristol councils have introduced a policy that forces developers "viability assessments" to be made public. This kind of policy should also be introduced in Liverpool.
By bringing these dodgy maths into the public domain, Councils, campaigning groups and individuals will be able to hold developers to account and force them to use more honest maths.
There are a number of internationally recognised projects working in Liverpool towards the development of new housing models, but the battle for affordable, high quality housing inevitably needs to be fought on many fronts. Changing the legislation to ensure all developers meet their responsibilities to the communities in which they are building will have tangible benefits to the people in the city.
Leaked documents from several developers have shown that the maths they use to work out their profit margins is either hidden from the public or purposefully misleading, allowing them to claim they will make less than 20% profit on a development by undervaluing the prices of the houses they will sell and over-costing the labour.
To combat this Islington, Greenwich, Lambeth and Bristol councils have introduced a policy that forces developers "viability assessments" to be made public. This kind of policy should also be introduced in Liverpool.
By bringing these dodgy maths into the public domain, Councils, campaigning groups and individuals will be able to hold developers to account and force them to use more honest maths.
There are a number of internationally recognised projects working in Liverpool towards the development of new housing models, but the battle for affordable, high quality housing inevitably needs to be fought on many fronts. Changing the legislation to ensure all developers meet their responsibilities to the communities in which they are building will have tangible benefits to the people in the city.
