Scottish Labour vows reform planning regime in manifesto

Scottish Labour has launched its manifesto for the Holyrood election, pledging to reform the planning regime and to end the housing crisis by building 60,000 affordable homes.

Leader Kezia Dugdale said the planning system should strike the right balance for communities and developers and also ensure the quality of both the environment and buildings are maintained.

The manifesto reads: “We believe it now needs reform to make the public interest stronger while providing certainty for developers to attract investment. We will improve the effectiveness of the plan-led system to ensure it respects local communities and holds the confidence of the public, developers and locally elected members.

“Local communities get frustrated when they see land lying derelict while people they know don’t have a place to call home. We will create legal powers, where needed, to allow councils to compel the sale of derelict and brownfield land for early development. Our reforms to local taxation will include, as part of a basket of taxes, a Land Value Tax which will help address this issue. We’ll also empower local communities to take over assets and run them as co-operatives, building on the work of so many community development trusts.”

The manifesto adds: “We will address local infrastructure problems so that good developers aren’t put off from proceeding with projects.”

Three quarters of the 60,000 affordable homes will be available for rent by councils, housing associations and co-operatives. The homes will be built to the highest standards of thermal insulation and at least 10 per cent will be built to wheelchair accessibility standards. The party said it will make more land available in the coming years to build homes, especially the consistently large areas of economically inactive land which blight communities.

Labour vowed to introduce a Warm Homes Act to bring clean and affordable warmth to thousands of households and businesses in Scotland, supporting the growth of district heating, renewable heating and investment in energy efficiency.

Ms Dugdale said: “This is the most positive manifesto Labour have ever published for a Scottish Parliament election.

“We present this alternative programme for government, our prospectus for change, to the Scottish people with a simple message: if you want to use the powers to make the changes we offer, then you have to vote for it.

“As many as one in four voters at this election are undecided. I want to speak today directly to them as they make up their mind on how to use both their votes.

“If you are still unsure how to vote, here’s our plan: we’ll tax the richest 1 per cent so we can invest in our schools and stop the cuts to our NHS and public services. If you want that, you have to vote for it.”

The Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Greens, Scottish Liberal Democrats and SNP have already launched their manifestos.