Mayor Ken Livingstone has launched a computer program that will dictate the amount of affordable housing required in London developments.
The program, based on research by the Three Dragons consultancy, has already been strongly criticised by lobby groups.
The “toolkit”, as Livingstone has dubbed it, will be used by planning authorities to calculate how much profit a developer will get from a scheme.
The program will then decide what counts as residual value, which the former Greater London Council termed “superprofit”, which will be used to provide affordable housing.
Business lobby London First (LF) said the toolkit was not sophisticated enough to cope with any development that took longer than 18 months to go from planning to the end of construction, or with the higher costs of buildings of over 11 storeys, and only took into consideration the residential component of a mixed scheme.
Judith Salomon, head of property at LF, said: “If they apply this to any large or complicated scheme it will produce completely inaccurate results, which will present another barrier to developing housing in London.”
References: EGi News 13/05/03
