Exclusive:SNP pledges to fast-track planning decisions on major housing developments
The Scottish government hopes a new national agency can help speed up slow planning decisions, seen as a key barrier to housebuilding.
SNP ministers will use a new flagship housing agency to boost Scotland’s “planning firepower” after admitting the current system is acting as “hindrance” to housebuilding.
Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan has suggested the new national housing agency will help clear the backlog in planning applications that has been blamed for slowing down progress on building affordable homes to alleviate the housing crisis.
Ms McAllan told The Scotsman that her proposed agency could “give surge capacity to local authorities” to cope with backlogs in planning and warned that “we need to be able to prioritise larger projects and be able to expedite them”.
Figures published by the Scottish government in December show that major housing developments are now taking an average of 37 weeks to process, more than double the 16-week statutory limit.
The statistics show that applications for developments of 49 homes or less are taking nearly five months to be determined by planning authorities, despite a statutory timeframe of two months.
The new agency, More Homes Scotland, was announced by John Swinney in January with a focus on speeding up Scotland’s delivery of housing of all tenures, including affordable homes.
Despite a target to build 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, only 31,064 have been completed, as of September.
Speaking to The Scotsman, Ms McAllan admitted that “we just, frankly, need to build more affordable homes”.
She said: “The agency is going to bring fire-power to all of this.”
Ms McAllan said planning delays was an issue raised with her by the industry, amid fears it was putting off investment from developers.
She added: “I believe it should feel facilitative - it should not feel like a hindrance.
“Obviously, we need local democracy, so people need a say on developments in and around their homes, but it needs to be proportionate.
“We need to be able to prioritise larger projects and be able to expedite them.”
Ms McAllan said the Scottish government has been “trying to boost resources” from planning departments across the country, warning “it can be a capacity issue”.
She added: “I’m hoping that when I update the parliament on what the agency is going to do, there will be an aspect of that that will be about planning firepower and being able to give surge capacity to local authorities where perhaps there’s a lot of interest in applications, but perhaps not so much capacity to deal with them.”
Shelter Scotland director, Alison Watson, has called for the new agency to have “a singular objective to reduce affordable housing need”.
She added: “Some voices call for the focus of the agency to be increasing the supply of all tenures of housing but that runs the risk of more homes without helping more people. Building more private homes doesn't necessarily reduce homelessness at all.
"With homelessness at record levels and over 10,000 children in temporary accommodation, this agency arrives at a crucial time. To succeed it must move at speed and scale, which will require proper funding and a singular clarity of focus.”
David Melhuish, director of the Scottish Property Federation, said: “Planning is certainly a key issue and the More Homes Scotland agency has the potential to play a key role in bringing together the various agencies that feed into planning to improve the process and reduce timescales, as well as potentially help to facilitate approaches to infrastructure obstacles.
“However, a key challenge for the industry remains development viability and we will be keen to see the agency explore risk sharing with the private sector in order to unlock development opportunities to deliver more homes and related development more quickly.”
Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) chief executive, Richard Meade, added: “If the agency is to succeed in ending Scotland’s housing emergency then housing associations must have a seat at the table in shaping how it is designed and operates. It cannot be established without proper scrutiny.
“Planning is also only one part of the picture in terms of the barriers to development.
“We need a system-wide approach which recognises social housing as critical infrastructure, delivers increased long-term funding to sustain development pipelines and recognises the targeted support small and rural housing providers require to overcome specific challenges.”
Scottish Labour Housing spokesperson Mark Griffin said “Under the SNP, housebuilding has plummeted, house prices have soared, home ownership has become a distant dream for many and more than 10,000 kids are stuck in temporary accommodation.
“The truth is the SNP created Scotland’s housing emergency – they won’t be the ones to fix it.”
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