Concern over unintended consequences of planning delivery advice on home building

Home builders have raised concerns over the unintended consequences which could arise from the Scottish Government’s draft delivery advice on planning and infrastructure.

Industry body Homes for Scotland stressed that whilst the draft advice provides a number of positive ideas which could assist local authorities to increase levels of home building across the country, a range of other issues may conflict with this overall objective.

Head of planning, Tammy Adams said: “With consultation on new advice rare, the opportunity to submit comments highlights the priority the Scottish Government is placing on increasing housing supply and reflects the importance of getting the advice right before it can be used. The confirmation that it will not be finalised and adopted until all views have been taken into account is therefore very welcome.

“Whilst positive action must be taken to help support the delivery of much needed new homes of all tenures and we agree with the principle of providing advice to assist planning authorities in the short term, we believe some aspects of this draft advice could inadvertently result in fewer homes being built. And with latest planning performance statistics indicating faster average decision times for both major and local housing developments compared with the previous year, it is crucial that this momentum continues.

“While it is heartening to see significant growth of housing completions in areas such as Perth & Kinross, it is vital to the Scottish economy that this is replicated across all City regions.

“Our main concern with regards the delivery advice relates to the removal of ‘marketability’ from the list of criteria that potential housing sites are expected to meet if they are to be deemed ‘effective’ and allocated for development. We live in a market economy and the reality is that private sector home builders deliver the majority of the new homes in Scotland, including a significant proportion of affordable homes. It is therefore essential that market issues are given proper consideration by local planning authorities when they are selecting development sites to meet housing need and demand. It is crucial that planning authorities liaise with the home building industry to understand the housing market in their area and ensure they have a realistic understanding of where it is financially viable to build and sell new homes. Any advice reducing the onus on planning authorities to do this would be a retrograde step which would frustrate rather than increase production.

“We recognise that there are many challenges to meeting Scotland’s diverse housing and infrastructure needs and stand ready to work collaboratively with the Scottish Government, infrastructure providers and strategic and local planning authorities to identify solutions that will work.”