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Affordable Housing Securing Planning Consent Survey 2011-12
26/09/2012
New official statistics on the quantity and location of affordable housing securing planning consent have been released today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician.
These statistics have been developed with planning authorities to provide information on the operation of planning guidance on the provision of affordable housing. Data was received from every authority except Highland this year. The statistics record information on affordable housing securing planning consent – be it by public subsidy or developer contributions – during the 2011/12 financial year, and also include summary figures back to 2007/08.
The main findings for 2011/12 (excluding Highland) are:
- An estimated 4,767 affordable housing units were granted planning consent during the 2011/12 financial year. This is a 28% decrease on the comparable number for 2010/11.
- The number of affordable units granted planning consent in 2011/12 have been impacted by the change in public finding for affordable provision. The Innovation and Investment Fund was introduced as a new funding arrangement to allow all suppliers to build new affordable housing. The Innovation and Investment Fund was implemented in 2011, and the timing of the changes have resulted in no approvals for RSL and Council new builds in quarter 3, 2011. This impacts directly on the number of planning applications submitted for approval for these sectors .
- 64% (3,043 units) are to be entirely publicly funded (including funds raised commercially by Registered Social Landlords) and the remaining 36% (1,724 units) are to involve some form of contribution by a private developer.
- Over one third (34% or 1,633 units) of affordable housing granted planning consent are planned to be used for rent by a Registered Social Landlord. 23% (1,113 units) are planned to be used for Local Authority rent.
- The highest number of affordable housing units granted consent during the survey reporting period were in Edinburgh (1,420 units).This is followed by Glasgow (626 units) then North Lanarkshire (237 units). All consented units in Glasgow are to be entirely publicly funded, as are those in North Lanarkshire. Edinburgh’s contribution is made up of 50% publicly-funded units and 50% of units contributed by developers.
- A minority of Planning Authorities have accepted commuted payments from developers for affordable housing provision. This is in lieu of developer-contributed affordable units. 85% of applications where only a commuted payment was accepted (216 out of 254) were for market-price developments of no more than 5 units in size. 172 of these developments are in Aberdeenshire, 32 are in Fife and 22 are in Scottish Borders.
- A total of £2.5 million of commuted payments was agreed with developers in 2011/12, bringing the total agreed since the beginning of 2007/08 to £16.6 million. In 2011/12, there were nine authorities that reported agreed commuted payments. Edinburgh (£853,000), Aberdeen City (£612,000), Fife (£436,000), Perth & Kinross (£200,000), Stirling (£135,000), East Lothian (£102,000), Scottish Borders (£98,000), North Lanarkshire (£55,000) and Moray (£4,000).
- Of the £16.6 million agreed since 20076/08, £11 million has so far been received, including £2.4 million in 2011/12. £7.4 million has been spent by planning authorities, including £2.6 million in 2011/12.
- £6.4 million was left on hand at the end of the financial year.
This is the sixth release of data from The Affordable Housing Securing Planning Consent survey, which provides new data for 2011/12. This is a survey of planning consents for new affordable housing provision and does not report on the actual building or completion of new affordable units. Details on completed units can be found here.
Profile Pages detailing councils’ affordable housing policies, along with illustrative information on things such as new-build rates are available through the Planning Statistics web pages at the link below. Those examining the results of this survey may find it useful to refer to these Profile Pages for further context-setting information.