Key Principles for Viability Assessment

The key principles underlying the Council's approach to viability considerations in Belfast are as follows: As part of the preparation of the LDP, the Council has tested the impact of proposed policy requirements on development viability, based on best practice approaches to strategic plan-wide viability testing. The policy requirements have therefore been set at a level that ensures most development will be viable. Assessing the viability of development at the plan-making stage does not require individual testing of every site or assurance that individual sites are viable. Instead, the Council used an appropriate range of site 'typologies' to determine the broad principle of development viability based on industry standards and robust local evidence. The Council will assume that a proposed development will be viable, unless a developer demonstrates otherwise.