...for Planners, Architects and Agents
Since 2001 the Landspeed Partnership has been advising developers, landowners and property professionals on all aspects of affordable housing, be it in terms of value, tenure issues, delivery mechanisms and disposals.
We have successfully negotiated planning agreements (via Section 106 and unilateral undertakings) and have also commented on emerging planning policies through local plans and supplementary planning guidance.
Unlike the majority of specialised consultants we have experience gained in both the private and public sectors, thereby enabling us to consider all issues from both perspectives.
If engaged from the very outset of a project, we pride ourselves on considering all the available options open to a client, subsequently advising on the most beneficial route to follow in terms of planning, value, delivery time and 'political' acceptability. We do however accept that in many instances we may be introduced once a site has already been secured or a planning consent issued and in those situations we will do all we can to assist in ensuring the most beneficial route is pursued within the parameters available.
We will not fight adopted planning policies; although we will always study them in detail as all too often we find that local authorities will try to impose conditions and obligations that contradict their own local plans and supporting guidance. We know all too well that developers do interpret policies in their own way as we have seen many instances where site viabilities have been put together with no consideration to planning policy or the mechanisms contained therein. We maintain a straight talking approach as we see no point in pursuing options that cannot be substantiated and whilst this may have ruffled a few clients' feathers in the past we feel our successes have borne out the stance we seek to maintain.
While our sister company, Landspeed Affordable Homes Limited, can both enable and deliver non grant reliant shared ownership affordable housing schemes we will not promote these options in isolation as, hard that it may seem in this day and age, we value our credibility and intend to be respected as an 'honest broker' that can assist in delivering genuinely affordable accommodation in line with policy whilst also respecting a client's aims and objectives.
A few of our services (and this is not an exhaustive list!):
- Consideration of local authority planning and housing policies and reporting thereon;
- Advising on value, mix and tenure issues relative to new or existing planning applications;
- Negotiation of scheme specifics with local authority housing and planning teams;
- Preparation of unilateral planning agreements and advising on Section 106 documents;
- Appeal support and advocacy relative to affordable housing and associated issues;
- Advice on and negotiation of land and/or unit disposals to RSLs and other approved bodies;
- Reporting and commenting on existing and emerging planning policy documents;
- Preparation of scheme viabilities for negotiation purposes
Our fee structures are tailored to each specific scheme and can be based on time spent or fixed costs with or without bonus related incentives. We are proud of the fact that our value based site specific instructions to date have all delivered results in excess of the client's financial expectations although there are some instances where we had to bring the client down from an unsubstantiated expectation before we set to work!
What is the Landspeed Partnership?
A partnership consultancy established in 2001 by Ted Reddick and Gary Stirling, the consultancy was formed in order to assist developers, their advisors and landowners in understanding their affordable housing obligations and to offer a more balanced perspective than that offered by other consultants who simply took the line of least resistance.
With Ted's extensive development background, in land acquisition and planning, alongside Gary's housing association expertise the combination of private and public sectors ensures that all the issues associated with affordable housing are addressed although both Partners' commercial awareness is such that this too is considered very much a key factor.