Borders new housing completions down 8%

by DOUG COLLIE

The sluggish market demand for housebuilding in the Scottish Borders has been further illustrated in a new report which shows completions fell by eight per cent to just 298 in 2021 despite a plentiful supply of land for developers.

An updated Housing Land Audit 2021 assembled by Scottish Borders Council has been produced just days ahead of a public hearing before a Government planning reporter which will examine the housing land issues in the authority's draft Local Development Plan (LDP). The LDP will determine which sites should be earmarked for new housing over the next ten years.

As we have reported recently, Ferguson Planning, a consultancy representing several site owners, claim the future housing land requirement should be increased to 8,000 units for the period 2023-2032.

But the council, in a recent submission to the reporters who are examining the LDP, maintain such a figure would result in a completely unrealistic and unjustified housing land requirement. 

According to SBC: "Furthermore, it is not considered that there is sound justifiable evidence and workings for the proposed figure of 8,000 units over the ten year period." The hearing is scheduled for April 26th.

The council explains that house completions over the period 2009-2020 totalled just 4,263 units while the housing land requirement contained within the adopted Local Development Plan was 13,422 units. Planning officers say allowing for 480 completions annually (4,800 over the coming ten years) will be more than enough to satisfy developers' demands.

The purpose of the council's annual Housing Land Audit is to identify and monitor the established and effective housing land supply, to meet the requirement for monitoring housing land, set out within Scottish Planning Policy (SPP).

The 2021 Audit, posted on the national planning appeals website this morning, shows the total number of completions in the past five years peaked at 345 as part of the 2019 audit. 

"Within the 2021 audit, there has been a decrease of 26 completions since the previous audit. The completion rates overall within the Scottish Borders have been much lower than the pre-recession rates, with many of the sites under construction within the Borders at a slow rate or stalled, due to lack of developer/mortgage finance."

The audit points out that in monitoring the effective housing land supply national policy does not specify how planning authorities should assess the availability of the five year supply. 

"The Council approach is to measure likely demand, which is illustrated by the performance of the development industry over the previous five year period as required by SPP, using historical completions data for this purpose. This provides a clear distinction between providing land to meet the theoretical requirement and ensuring the presence of a five year effective land supply to meet prospective market demand."

A section of the audit report headed Current Economic Situation/Covid-19 Pandemic Recovery states: " As stated in previous audits, an estimate of the timescale for delivery of housing projects has been continually difficult due to the downturn in the housing market. The programming of sites within the audit continues to be a reasonable expression of what can be developed within the given time periods and there is a significant degree of uncertainty beyond 2 to 3 years. 

"Furthermore, a large number of sites were subject to delays and stalling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, since early 2020. As a result, it is acknowledged that this will have impacts upon the programming of sites going forward. This has been taken on board within the programming. SBC are also aware of the ongoing economic position regarding the lack of development finance and the availability of mortgage finance for buyers. 

"It should be noted that in recent years there are very few local house builders developing sites within the Scottish Borders. The above demonstrates the direct impact upon rural areas including the Scottish Borders as a result of the current economic climate and COVID-19 pandemic recovery. As housing completions remain at a low level, this directly impacts upon the identification of the effective housing land supply from the total established land supply and there is a need to place the housing requirement into context."

FOOTNOTE: The 2019 housing audit included details of planned housebuilding on the council-owned Lowood Estate adjacent to Tweedbank village. The proposal is for a phased development of 300 new homes, and at the time 30 units were to be completed in 2023, followed by 50 in 2024, 50 in 2025 and 120 "post seven years".

The new audit indicates the first 30 houses will not now be constructed until 2025 with the subsequent three batches of 50 to follow in 2026, 2027 and 2028. The remaining 120 are again pencilled in for "post seven years".

The developer is 'unknown' while all 300 homes are classed as "mainstream" and none in the  "affordable" bracket.