With Scotland needing 550,000 homes, SNP must learn from Labour how to tackle housing emergency

Compare and contrast the impetus given by a change in government with our current situation in Scotland. The ambition down south is that 370,000 homes should be built every year in England. One could question whether it’s achievable or not, but it sends a message of intent.

In May, the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency, which came off the back of £200 million being removed from the housing budget. This has had a direct impact on private and affordable housing delivery.

Perfect storm

Combine this with recent high build-cost inflation, the rapid rise in interest rates after Liz Truss’s mini-budget and the Scottish Government’s current planning policy position, and we are in the perfect storm of negativity for the Scottish housebuilding industry.

Planning permission timescales are up, planning costs are up, small and medium housebuilders are struggling for land opportunities and going out of business. Affordable housing starts are declining and, with new local development plans being years away from approval, we have a void of new opportunities for housing to be built.

We are told that it is solely a budgetary issue, rather than a land supply issue, that is causing the housing emergency. But the truth is it’s much more complicated than that, with under-provision of all forms of housing dating back decades.

Woeful progress

In 2007, the SNP government stated that we needed to build 35,000 homes a year, but this target was never actually achieved. Before the Covid pandemic struck, we were building just over 21,000 homes a year. The numbers peaked in 2005/06 at 25,000 homes. To be fair, housing completions have been on the rise recently, but by nowhere near enough because viable opportunities are scarce.

Planning system reform, apparently to enable more houses to be built, began in 2016 and this was followed by a new Planning Act in 2019, a new national planning framework, and new local development plans, although the first will not actually be adopted until 2027. An unscientific straw poll amongst the industry I recently conducted suggested that it would be at least 2029 or 2030 before we see the first house built under the new system. Nearly 14 years after the reform process began. Woeful.

A survey of Scottish households carried out for industry body Homes for Scotland by Retties and the Diffley Partnership, asked people what their housing situation was. It found that 28 per cent of Scottish households were in some sort of housing need with a total of 550,000 homes needed now.

Yes In My Back Yard

To put into context, the Scottish Government set a minimum target of 204,000 new homes to be built over the next ten years. We are seeing a trend in which local authorities tend to do the minimum required, plus one house, or even, as in East Lothian, set targets below the minimum. It is noted that housing is not always popular but it is the foundation upon which our future prosperity can be built. After all, what is better for someone’s health and well-being than being in the right home, in the right location?

From a political perspective, attitudes to housing are changing, particularly amongst the younger generations desperately needing their first home. The Yimby (Yes In My Backyard) vote needs to be embraced and given a voice. I imagine sceptics could easily respond to this article and say, “well you would say that wouldn’t you” and yes, I would, but who else is going to say it?

As a country, we have consistently planned and provided for the minimum, politically acceptable amount of housing. This means that tinkering around the edges of the problem will not solve the current housing crisis, and a radical change in approach is required, with ears and minds open on all sides. Can we not work now together to deliver the old SNP promise of 35,000 homes a year, which was never translated into policy? It cannot be unresolvable.

Central government must step in

Politicians of all party colours talk about the importance of housing to the nation’s economy and national well-being, but rarely do we see this reflected in policy terms, nor in decisions made on the ground by local councils.

Recent decision-making on local development plans have been disappointing as councils seem to be getting away with doing the minimum, or below. The minimum figure set by the Scottish Government in National Planning Framework 4 is already woefully inadequate, reflecting just seven new homes for every existing 1,000, whereas the new English equivalent figure is 15, more than double.

Local authorities need to be told by central government how many houses to plan for, as the status quo is not working. The planning minister has the opportunity to shape future decision-making by determining a number of planning appeals before him, setting out how the government’s planning policy is to be interpreted in the coming years.

Notwithstanding the climate and biodiversity crises we find ourselves in, I do not believe the solutions to any of them are incompatible, after all modern housing is now built to very high environmental standards, with a requirement to leave an enhanced biodiversity position across a site after the development is finished.

My question to John Swinney is whether he is willing to listen, or if he will simply do more of the same. With an invigorated Scottish Labour party looking to make inroads at the next election, he can either back the builders or the blockers. Scottish Government, which is it?

Andrew McNab is senior land and planning manager at Hallam Land