by OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT EDITOR
The first phase of urgently needed affordable homes for rent on the Lowood Estate in the Central Borders will not now be built before 2029, more than ten years after the local council paid £10 million for the site to accommodate a 'strategic expansion' of Tweedbank village.
According to the latest Strategic Housing Investment Plan [SHIP] published by Scottish Borders Council the first phase of 30 units of social housing to be constructed for Eildon Housing Association will start in 2029/30 with completion 'to be programmed'.
The three-stage process is designed to deliver 75-100 affordable homes as part of a larger estimated 300-400 houses and other mixed development. Phases two and three are now merely classed as 'pipeline' projects with no firm dates attached. And so far, there has been no public announcement about private housebuilders agreeing to help develop the designated Lowood housing zones.
A SHIP report produced in 2020 regretted that the first phase of 30 affordable units would "not be completed until financial year 2024/25" with 25 more becoming available in 2025/26. Now, the latest delayed timetable will mean at least a further five year wait before the first tenancies are allocated.
Earlier this year, council officers reported that the average number of bids per available social rented property in the Borders had doubled in the last five years from 17 to 34.
They commented: "With high demand, waiting times and higher numbers of homeless presentations, the social rented supply may not be performing as efficiently as it could. It remains challenging to deliver new build social rented stock at the necessary volumes".
It was back in 2019 that councillors approved the full business case for the Central Borders Business Park programme of works and wider Tweedbank expansion. And in 2021, Supplementary Planning Guidance set out the council's vision for the site.
But critics have claimed the controversial purchase of Lowood in 2018 did not represent value for money. They warned the local authority would require substantial external expenditure to meet the multi-million pound bill for infrastructure costs, and there was no guarantee major housebuilders would invest in the area due to a sluggish housing market.
Tweedbank is one of three so-called strategic housing sites which could benefit from grants from the Edinburgh & South-east Scotland City Region Deal. But before any money could be released, a further business case will be needed to convince those holding the purse strings.
Members of the City Deal joint committee were told in September 2023 that the Tweedbank housing business case would be available in winter 2023/spring 2024. But the latest committee meeting heard that date has now been rescheduled for "summer 2025".
The committee was told in a recent report by Marjory Mackie, chair of the Deal's Housing Partners Group: "At the beginning of the year, the Scottish Government announced a budget cut of around £200 million from the national affordable housing programme budget. There is also limited availability of charitable bonds for the year ahead.
"The region’s six Local Authorities have experienced around a 24% cut to their individuals affordable housing programme budgets/Resource Planning Assumptions (RPAs) which is a total reduction of nearly £34 million. When compared with what could be delivered without the funding cut the region estimates that this year’s affordable housing approvals will be down by just over 640 homes and site starts will be down by nearly 420 homes and completions similar. This will have serious implications for future completions across affordable housing and housing of all tenures."
The newly published Borders housing investment programme explains: "While the SHIP sets out a potential pipeline over the next five years, it should be noted that delivery of 1,050 new homes is very ambitious and would require significant investment, including a substantial increase to our annual Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) allocation."
A more realistic figure would be 455, or around 90-100 new affordable homes per year. This is below the Borders affordable housing supply target of 141 per year up to the end of March 2028.
A seasoned observer of Borders local government said: "It is clear nothing of significance has moved forward on the Lowood estate since its purchase 6 years ago. Given the delays with the proposed housing programme, perhaps the SHIP report should be re-named SLIP".
We asked the City Deal for information about delays to the production of the Tweedbank housing business case, who was carrying out the work and why further work of this kind was necessary.
In reply, we were provided with this statement: "To enable our development of the Final Business Case, we are progressing with the preparation of a development plan (for homes, business and community space) which will inform revised costings, delivery approach and phasing of the next stages of development.
"This work began over the summer and the initial phase is due to conclude in February with market testing and pursuit/ securing of financing/ funding to follow. The Phase Two extension of the office building at the Borders Innovation Park is in development with a programmed construction start in September 2025 (may come forward). We've also agreed an action to begin actively marketing business opportunities at Tweedbank/ Lowood with South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) through the Invest in South of Scotland platform."
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