THE Housing Secretary has set out plans to reduce local planning backlogs to speed up house building efforts.
Speaking to The Scotsman, Mairi McAllan said that the Scottish Government's proposed housing agency would boost Scotland's "planning firepower" by being able to give "surge capacity" to authorities facing the most interest in planning applications.
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.
As of September, 31,064 new affordable homes had been built out of a target of 110,000 by 2032.
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Speaking to The Scotsman, 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.”
Concerns have been raised that new powers would reduce local community's ability to challenge new developments while development firms have said current regulations can delay projects too easily.
McAllan said: “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.”
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, said the new agency must have “a singular objective to reduce affordable housing need”, adding that "building more private homes doesn't necessarily reduce homelessness at all"
She said: "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.”
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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.”
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