Hearing on Borders housing land issues

by DOUGLAS SHEPHERD

An evidence session has been arranged so that arguments centred on the amount of land to be earmarked for housebuilding in the Scottish Borders during the next ten years can be aired before Government planning specialists.

The hearing, scheduled for April 26th, will form a key element of the continuing examination of Scottish Borders Council's draft Local Development Plan (LDP) which has attracted hundreds of submissions from vested interests and from members of the public.

A team of Scottish Government reporters will hear views on Planning for Housing and Meeting the Housing Land Requirement. Witnesses are likely to include national housing agency Homes For Scotland and consultants Ferguson Planning who represent developers along with SBC officers.

The examination already has before it more than 830 documents and written statements linked to the Borders LDP. The council wants to set the land requirement at 4,800 units.

Ferguson Planning argue that the unsatisfied element of the previous housing land requirement (HLR)  should be met in the HLR informing the new development plan They say the HLR should be amended to 8,000 units for the period 2023-2032.

But the council, in a recent submission to the reporters claims: " It is considered that by including the undelivered backlog, this would result in a completely unrealistic and unjustified housing land requirement. 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."

SBC has revealed 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.

Local authority planning officers maintain allowing for 480 completions annually (4,800 over the coming ten years) will be more than enough to satisfy developers' demands.

In rebutting the case advanced by Ferguson Planning, SBC states: "It is acknowledged that at the recent Convention of South of Scotland, it was highlighted that there is a lack of both local and national house builders developing in certain locations, where there is indeed a healthy housing land supply, within the Scottish Borders. 

"Given the recent completion rate trends for the Region, it is considered unrealistic that there is a need and demand for the level of housing proposed by including the undelivered backlog from the previous Plan. It is not considered that the figures proposed by the contributors would reflect the current need and demand evidenced within the most up to date HNDA3 [Housing Needs and Demands Assessment]. Furthermore, it is not considered that it is the intention of NPF4 (National Planning Framework Four) of LDP’s to roll forward undelivered backlog from previous Plans."

As we reported last month, Homes for Scotland [HfS], the body which represents housebuilders and social landlords, has attacked SBC's housing policies, claiming the region is missing out on positive development opportunities, while the construction industry can have "zero faith" in the local authority's latest land audit.

In its written submission, HfS asserts: "If the Council is to see a better match between household need and demand for homes, and the supply of new homes in the future, it will need to review the cumulative impact of its policies on build costs, initiate a shift in its approach to land release to realign its suite of allocations with the market interest that does exist and introduce a more flexible land release policy that can respond not just to a technical shortfall in the land supply but to any issues arising in association with the delivery of allocated sites and other sites already in the established supply."