A London borough has approved a new planning policy that requires developers to publicly disclose their viability assessments if they are unable to provide enough affordable housing.

Building companies operating in the Royal Borough of Greenwich must provide at least 35% of affordable housing in new residential developments of more than ten new homes.

Under the present laws, if a developer considers this to be economically unviable, they are able to provide the borough with its viability assessment in strict confidence in order to demonstrate why they are unable to provide the required amount of affordable housing.

However, Greenwich’s new policy means developers will now have to supply fully public, unredacted viability assessments along with residential planning applications.

Cllr Danny Thorpe, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Transport said: ‘This is about transparency for local people. Previously, our hands have been tied on affordable housing levels if the viability study showed a development won’t work financially with the levels of affordable housing that we want.

‘This crucial change means the whole process will now be far more transparent – making the viability studies publicly available as part of the planning documents means the Royal Borough and residents alike can see precisely why a developer might claim they cannot meet our affordable housing targets.

‘We believe we’re the first local authority in the country to be doing this – looking at policy which insists on these studies being in the public domain.’