Full Guide to Developers for Negotiation in Affordable Housing This Guide has been prepared by and for HBF members. It is designed to be of practical value to all members in their contact with local authorities at all stages of negotiation for affordable housing, throughout the process: from objecting to development plans and SPGs, to negotiating S.106 agreements or alternative means of provision. This Guide is the full version of the Summary Guide, which was published and circulated to all HBF members in May 2001. The Guide is intended to help the industry move towards a consistent starting point for negotiating. It is not suggested that members should adopt a standard approach to negotiation itself, clearly this will be inappropriate given the infinite range of site-specific and other variations. But an industry standard interpretation of Government guidance is a useful starting point and valuable in countering the emerging local authority interpretation. The structure of the Guide is based around the contents of Circular 6/98, currently the most detailed Government guidance on affordable housing. Clearly the interpretation of 6/98 and other relevant PPGs and Circulars is evolving rapidly as more cases are dealt with by Inspectors and the Courts. The examples of Inspectors and Courts interpretations of policy, are intended to be capable of easy replacement as better and more up-to-date examples appear. The Guide has been placed on the web-site so that it can easily be kept upto- date and of maximum utility. In order to keep the Guide up to date, it is requested that HBF members report to HBF staff any relevant new interpretations of Government policy. By working together in this way the Guide can be adapted and modified to maintain its value. The Guide should be regarded as complementary to the Advice Note prepared by the HBF Retirement Housing Group, Sheltered Housing and Affordable Housing Quotas An Advice Note for House Builders, and like the Advice Note should not be shown to local authorities or other third parties. This Guide has been produced by the HBF Affordable Housing Working Group.
