Response to the call for evidence on the independent review of the planning system

Housing has moved up the political agenda. The Commission on Housing and Wellbeing
recently highlighted the importance of the home in improving the wellbeing of Scotland’s
population, and called upon the Scottish Government to make the delivery of housing –
particularly affordable housing – a major national priority.2 Research commissioned by
Shelter Scotland, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland and the Scottish Federation
of Housing Associations found that at least 12,000 affordable homes need to be built per
year to meet current and future need for affordable housing. This represents 64.2 per
cent of all newly arising need for housing in Scotland.

This is beginning to be reflected at a political level, too. The First Minister recently
committed to build 50,000 affordable homes over the course of the next parliament if
elected in May 2016.

Ensuring that the planning system is adequately geared up to facilitate the delivery of a house building programme of the scale required to meet the needs of thousands of households across Scotland is clearly of central importance.

Shelter Scotland’s 2014 report ‘Planning to meet the need’ examined the importance of
the planning system in the delivery of affordable housing. The report made a number of
recommendations which we refer to in this evidence submission.5 We have also enclosed
the report for the attention of those carrying out this review. Shelter Scotland facilitated
two round table discussions with planning professionals to discuss the report’s findings
and look at best practice in the field of delivering affordable housing through the planning
system. We would be happy to reconvene this group to feed into the independent review
process.

In Shelter Scotland’s view it is also important to put discussions centering on the planning
system in context: while the planning system should be reviewed and refined at
appropriate intervals in the context of delivering projects, we should be careful not to
ignore external factors which often act as barriers to development. Before the financial
crisis of 2008 the planning system we have now was able to deliver a relatively high
volume of housing in Scotland – roughly 28,000 units per year at the peak of the market.
Since then the market for land and property has changed. Some land is considered hard
to develop as a consequence of the high values many sites attracted before the crash.
The demand for home ownership has changed, too, due to a combination of stricter
lending criteria and escalating house prices.

Ignoring these factors when recommending any fundamental change to the planning
system would be a mistake: the planning system should not be made to bend in lieu of
addressing fundamental issues in housing, land ownership and wider economic policy.