Building Briefs – November 14th

South Ayrshire Council is set to undertake improvement works at the Riverside High Flats in Ayr following recommendations in light of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Councillors made the decision in recognition of a recent survey which highlighted that the flats are mainly populated by elderly residents and those with mobility issues.

Design work will now progress with a view to carrying out a number of improvements, which include:

Residents are already aware of the improvements as the survey took into account their opinions and those of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and other experts.

Flats and restaurant plans lodged for Broughty Ferry

A planning application has been submitted for a development of seven flats and a restaurant development on King Street in Brought Ferry, Dundee.

Architects Brunton Design said the proposal reflects the content of much dialogue with the Planning Department. Each flat is has two bedrooms and individual parking.

The site will also benefit from a new restaurant on the ground floor.

Permission has been sought for Dounreay demolition

A planning application has been submitted to Highland Council for the dismantling and demolition of the reactors at the Dounreay nuclear power complex in Caithness..

The application covers other work, including construction of new buildings to store low level radioactive waste.

The waste is currently held in pits that are at risk of being exposed due to coastal erosion.

Dounreay Site Restoration Limited has estimated that this could take from 800 to 3,000 years to happen, with the radioactive material then being washed out into the North Atlantic.

The buildings to be demolished include the Dounreay Fast Reactor’s exterior superstructure, known as the dome and the sphere. It is a landmark feature of the nuclear site, near Thurso.

Built in the 1950s, Dounreay was an experimental nuclear power site.

The application is the last of three planning phases covering the overall decommissioning of the complex.

Chartered Building Surveyor joins DM Hall building consultancy arm

Philip Bell, a highly-experienced chartered building surveyor, has joined the building consultancy arm of DM Hall.

Philip, a graduate of Heriot-Watt University, and a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, has 30 years’ of extensive professional experience in commercial building surveying and project management, and before that front line contracting experience gained with major national contractors.

Views sought on Picardy Place design proposals

The public are being invited to view and comment on proposals for the future layout of Picardy Place and the surrounding area.

Two events are set to take place on Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 November, where people can submit opinions on designs and hear from the City of Edinburgh Council on how plans have evolved since their inception.

Participants will be shown refinements already made to proposals based on feedback from a series of public events held in September, including increased provision for pedestrians and cyclists.

Views will also be sought on the piece of land at the top of Leith Walk, where a roundabout currently sits. Feedback will be used to inform the final designs, which are expected to be discussed by the transport and environment committee at the beginning of next year.

Designs aim to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists while facilitating public transport, in addition to future proofing the area for extending the tram to Newhaven, if approved next year.

Alongside the period of engagement, contractors are scheduled to begin enabling works in November, including the removal of the Paolozzi sculptures and Sherlock Holmes statues in the area. However, this will not include any work on the construction of the layout currently under discussion.

Public information events will take place on Tuesday, 21 November from 10am to 7pm at the City Art Centre and Wednesday, 22 November from 3pm to 7pm at Bellevue Church.

Scottish Government ‘on course’ to miss affordable housing targets

The Scottish Government is set to miss its own targets for building affordable housing by thousands of homes, according to the Scottish Labour Party.

Using its own analysis of the latest figures, the party said rates of home completions are far below what is needed to reach targets set just last year.

And it claimed the targets were already too low to deal with a housing crisis that has driven 21,000 people to ask charities for help dealing with homelessness or avoiding becoming homeless in the past year.

In 2016, Scottish ministers pledged £3 billion to build 50,000 affordable homes, 35,000 of which are destined for the social rented sector.

However, the number of affordable homes completed per quarter since the middle of last year has averaged at just 1,808, well below the 2,673 needed to reach the 50,000 target by 2021. The gap in completions for social rent is even wider, with an increase in the completion rate of 159% needed to meet the target.

Labour’s housing spokeswoman Pauline McNeill MSP said the government’s targets themselves did not meet the call from housing charity Shelter to build 60,000 affordable homes by the end of the parliament.

Housing minister Kevin Stewart said Scotland was building more affordable homes per head than England and Wales.

Proposal to transform Kirkcaldy waterfront to be unveiled today

Proposals which could pave the way for a transformation of Kirkcaldy’s waterfront are to be unveiled today.

Four options that could see wholesale changes to the town’s Esplanade will be displayed to members of town centre BID group Kirkcaldy 4 All.

The move comes after Kirkcaldy councillor Neil Crooks revealed in September that a major renovation of the Esplanade could be completed as early as the end of next year.

The plan is part of a package of exciting projects designed to breathe new life into the town, including proposals to open the Kings Theatre at the former ABC cinema and hopes of a new cinema on the site of the former swimming pool.

Average two-bedroom private rents up by 4.4%

The average rent levels of a two-bedroom private property in Scotland has increased by 4.4% over the last 12 months, the highest annual increase since 2010.

Statistics on private sector rent levels from 2010 to 2017, released today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician, revealed that between 2016 and 2017, 15 out of 18 areas of Scotland saw increases in average rent levels for two-bedroom private rental properties, ranging from 0.7% in the Ayrshires to 6.9% in Lothian and 7.0% in Greater Glasgow.

Aberdeen and Shire saw a decrease of 9.6%, the third consecutive annual decrease, which is likely to reflect decreased demand for rental properties following the downturn in the oil industry.

These regional trends combine to show a 4.4% increase in average two-bedroom monthly rents at a Scotland level from £616 in 2016 to £643 in 2017, the highest annual increase since 2010. This compares to an increase in the UK Consumer Price Index of 3.0% in the year to Sept-17.

Over the longer 7-year period from 2010 to 2017, the two areas of Lothian and Greater Glasgow have both seen two-bedroom average rents increase above the rate of inflation of 15.9% over the full length of this time period, with all other sixteen areas of Scotland seeing cumulative rent increases below the rate of inflation.

While figures on average rents across all property size categories are available in the main publication, the main findings are based on two-bedroom properties because these are the most prevalent size of property in the private rented sector.

Over the 7-year period from 2010 to 2017, the Lothian area has seen the highest increase in private rents for two-bedroom properties, with average monthly rents rising by 33.7% (cumulative increase over 7 years), whilst average rents in the Greater Glasgow area have risen by a cumulative 32.1%.

For the remaining areas of Scotland, cumulative increases over the last 7 years have ranged from 0.5% in the Ayrshires to 14.9% in Fife. These regional trends combine to show a 19.9% cumulative increase in average rents from 2010 to 2017 for 2 bedroom properties at the Scotland level.

For the year to end-September 2017, Lothian had the highest average monthly rents for 2 bedroom properties across Scotland (£888). Other areas with high rents included Greater Glasgow (£745), Aberdeen and Shire (£682), and East Dunbartonshire (£653). Areas with the lowest average rents for two-bedroom properties included Dumfries and Galloway (£453), Scottish Borders (£459), and the Ayrshires (£467).

Figures on changes to rents between 2010 and 2017 should be considered in the context of the cumulative increase in the UK Consumer Price Index of 15.9% from Sept-10 to Sept-17.

Scottish house prices up 3% since last year despite monthly decrease

The average price of a property in Scotland in September 2017 was £144,924 – an increase of 3.1% on September in the previous year and a decrease of 1.3% when compared to the previous month.

According to the latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI), the figure compares to a UK average of £226,367, which was an increase of 5.4% on September in the previous year and an increase of 0.4% when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in July 2017 was 8,725 – a decrease of 5.7% on July 2016 and a decrease of 18.3% on the previous month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 17.1% in England, 11.3% in Wales and 8.6% in Northern Ireland (Quarter 3 - 2017).

The top five local authorities in terms of July sales volumes were the City of Edinburgh (1,145 sales), Glasgow City (1,018 sales), Fife (607 sales), South Lanarkshire (510 sales) and North Lanarkshire (436 sales).

Average price increases were recorded in 30 out of 32 local authorities in September 2017, when comparing prices with the previous year. The biggest price increase was in the City of Edinburgh, where the average price increased by 9% to £248,702. Decreases were recorded in Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City, where prices fell by 2% to £192,292 and by 3.5% to £165,275 respectively.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in September 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Flatted properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 4.2% to £105,398. The average price of semi-detached properties showed the smallest increase, 2.1% to £149,616.

The average price in September 2017 for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £117,510 – an increase of 3.1% compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £173,160 – also an increase of 3.1% on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £133,783 – an increase of 2.9% on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £150,085 – an increase of 3.2% on the previous year.