
We provide advice to landowners on the potential for redevelopment and asset management in order to optimise their land holding. Quite often the outcome is change of use to residential or other added value uses such as higher value commercial, assisted care, retirement and care home facilities amongst
others.
Development Land falls into 2 broad categories:
Brownfield: This is formerly developed land. Local authorities are keen to re-use this scarce resource when the opportunity arises to optimise land use in urban settings and locate residential and businesses to the correct areas of any town. This requires assessment on viability by preparing a Development Appraisal to establish if it is worthwhile.
Greenfield: By definition this is mostly agricultural land. It tends to involve more strategic processes from a planning point of view where land is identified via a longer period of consultation for development. Currently the policy is embodied in the Core Strategy for each Local Authority. The original land value tends to be much lower than Brownfield but the cost of serving it (infrastructure) much higher since it is normally outside the existing urban framework.
To bring any land forward for development or re-development will require change of use. There are several stages in the process, some of which can be quite lengthy:
Consultation: We work closely with planning consultants to consider the planning potential and prepare Development Appraisals to assess the viability.
Collaboration: If Greenfield there may be several landowners involved and they need to agree to a joint approach to the planning process.
Understanding the planning constraints: These can include traffic impact, availability of services, environmental impact, flooding, archaeology, ecology, topography.
Section 106: This is the Planning Agreement with the local planning authority that sets out the contributions they require if planning consent is to be granted. This will contain requirements such as affordable housing, perhaps highway improvements, surface water attenuation or play areas; or a capital contributions to cover infra-structure, education, and maintenance of open spaces etc.
Methods of Disposal: The landowner may decide to fund the project him/herself or bring on board a developer with the experience and resources to deliver the land with consent. The options therefore are:
Development Land falls into 2 broad categories:
Brownfield: This is formerly developed land. Local authorities are keen to re-use this scarce resource when the opportunity arises to optimise land use in urban settings and locate residential and businesses to the correct areas of any town. This requires assessment on viability by preparing a Development Appraisal to establish if it is worthwhile.
Greenfield: By definition this is mostly agricultural land. It tends to involve more strategic processes from a planning point of view where land is identified via a longer period of consultation for development. Currently the policy is embodied in the Core Strategy for each Local Authority. The original land value tends to be much lower than Brownfield but the cost of serving it (infrastructure) much higher since it is normally outside the existing urban framework.
To bring any land forward for development or re-development will require change of use. There are several stages in the process, some of which can be quite lengthy:
Consultation: We work closely with planning consultants to consider the planning potential and prepare Development Appraisals to assess the viability.
Collaboration: If Greenfield there may be several landowners involved and they need to agree to a joint approach to the planning process.
Understanding the planning constraints: These can include traffic impact, availability of services, environmental impact, flooding, archaeology, ecology, topography.
Section 106: This is the Planning Agreement with the local planning authority that sets out the contributions they require if planning consent is to be granted. This will contain requirements such as affordable housing, perhaps highway improvements, surface water attenuation or play areas; or a capital contributions to cover infra-structure, education, and maintenance of open spaces etc.
Methods of Disposal: The landowner may decide to fund the project him/herself or bring on board a developer with the experience and resources to deliver the land with consent. The options therefore are:
- Sale in the open market with the benefit of consent
- Offer an Option, Conditional Contract or Promotion Agreement to a preferred developer
Cowan Land + Survey offers the following services:
- Development Appraisals
- Valuations
- Marketing advice and Negotiations
- Viability Appraisals relating to S106 Contributions
- Marketing Reports