Developing the financial business case for a wholly owned development company
LBBD had ambitious plans to provide significant new housing in the borough. As part of this, they wanted to set up the Council’s first 100% owned development company, BeFirst.
The Role
We were appointed to provide financial analysis to support the business case for the formation of BeFirst. We provided an overarching financial and risk model that assessed the likely development within the borough over the next 50 years. The model covered housing developments both on Council owned land but also on privately held land, as well as wider infrastructure and capital projects.
We estimated costs and incomes associated with the development programme as well as forecasting the BeFirst company costs and likely returns to the Council.
Key Outcomes
This assignment provided LBBD with the confidence to proceed with the formation of BeFirst. The Council had a baseline budget, a development plan to challenge officers throughout the set-up process and a high-level risk tool to assess the main inhibitors to the success of the project going forward.
£170m
investment over 10 years
3,800
residential units
80,015sqm
of commercial space
31ten has played a fundamental role in bringing forward a wide range of housing initiatives that address Barking & Dagenham’s wide and changing housing challenges across tenures and income groups. Through their detailed understanding of housing finance, institutional funding, local authority powers and delivery structures their cutting-edge advice, exceptional financial support and innovative financial tools have helped drive affordable delivery that otherwise would not have happened.
Andrew Sivess
Head of Assets & Investments
