Affordable Housing & Planning - A Practical Guide to Viability & Delivery

Introduction

Affordable housing is once again at the centre of planning practice. The Government’s drive to deliver 1.5 million homes this Parliament, the new local plan system being rolled out under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, the March 2026 Roadmap for Section 106 Delivery and the wider reform agenda set out in the recent Planning White Paper have all changed the terrain in which planners, developers, Registered Providers and local authorities operate.

This virtual classroom seminar is designed for solicitors, in-house planning lawyers, local authority officers, planning consultants and developers who need a practical, up-to-date grasp of how affordable housing is secured, negotiated and delivered through the planning system in England.

It examines the policy framework, the valuation and viability issues and the drafting pitfalls that most commonly cause schemes to stall or unravel and offers workable solutions for committee stage, section 106 negotiation and post-completion delivery. The content is focused on England; references will be drawn where useful to comparable regimes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive course will cover the following:

• Policy Framework & the Direction of Travel
• Types of affordable housing under the NPPF and the impact of tenure on land value
• The new and emerging tenures and how they affect deliverability on the ground
• Implications of the recent Planning White Paper and the Government’s wider housing delivery agenda for affordable housing policy
• Need, Policy Compliance & Evidence
• Aligning what is sought from a scheme with the council’s adopted policy requirements and the Strategic Housing Market Assessment/local housing need survey
• How affordable housing requirements are tested under the new local plan system
• Viability & Deliverability
• Issues of viability and deliverability at application and post-permission stages
• Dealing with viability in the post-section 106BA landscape - current routes for reopening and renegotiation
• Public subsidy: grant funding, Homes England input and the impact on the viability appraisal
• Section 106 - Negotiating & Drafting
• Cascade provisions where there is no Registered Provider demand for the council’s preferred tenure mix, including the role of the Homes England Clearing Service
• Minimum pricing mechanisms so that, in addition to free or discounted land, the developer is not asked to further subsidise build costs
• Getting the heads of terms right at committee stage - the points most commonly missed
• Drafting the section 106 agreement: common pitfalls, areas of danger and key protective provisions
• Dealing with issues of title where there is more than one landowner or Registered Provider as a party
• Recent Reform & What’s Next
• The March 2026 Roadmap for Section 106 Delivery: renegotiation of stalled agreements, uncontracted units and the Government’s ‘reset’ of the s106 system
• Practical implications of the Planning White Paper for affordable housing delivery and what to watch for in the months ahead

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.