Scotland's planning system hinders new home building

Scotland’s “sclerotic” planning system is contributing to both a housing shortage and rising prices, according to David Alves, managing director of estate agents Stewart Saunders and chairman of REAL Estate Agents, in the latest edition of the Property Guide.

It’s estimated that Scotland needs 35,000 new homes to be built each year to cope with the net inflow of population - expected to reach 8,500 by 2012-13 and stay at this level for another 20 years thereafter.

But the number of new homes built fell from 26,000 in 2005 to only 23,700 in 2006.

Stewart Maxwell, Communities Minister of the Scottish Government, has announced a policy initiative – “Firm Foundations” – which sets 2015 as the year by which the 35,000 will be achieved annually.

This is unachievable, as David Alves points out. “Around 40 per cent of the potential sites in Scotland can’t be developed without major investments in water and drainage infrastructure well beyond Scottish Water’s current level of funding,” he says.

“Under the new planning laws there has to be a period of community consultation before planning applications can be processed. It doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that approvals will take a lot longer to get through the system.

“Other countries do this so much better – mainly by having clear, pre-determined guidelines on what type of development can be approved and where.

"In the USA, for example, a planning application conforming to area zoning can be approved in eight weeks. Here, although the policy insists on the same period, anything bigger than a simple house extension takes much longer. A development of any size usually takes a full year to pass through the system.”