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1. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY
1.1 All Scottish planning authorities are expected to prepare Housing Land Audits ( HLA) in order to monitor the future supply of housing in their areas. Across the country, there are 17 separate HLAs produced annually by groupings of Councils or individual Councils, reflecting structure plan and housing market areas. Section 2 of this report and various appendices contain a baseline review of all current HLAs, summarising various aspects of preparation methodology and content.
1.2 The main purpose of this research is to establish best practice for HLA preparation and presentation, with the following objectives:
- Improving predictive accuracy.
- Improving presentation and accessibility.
- Providing common information outputs across Scotland to allow for consistent monitoring at a national level.
1.3 Broadly, it is possible to identify two main strands to our research:
- A quantitative analysis, relating mainly to the differences between current HLAs and our comparative assessment of best practice in terms of the type of information collected and the way it is presented.
- A qualitative analysis, examining the role of the various stakeholders in the HLA process and considering the factors that hinder or help effective monitoring of the housing land supply or constrain actions to maintain the required land supply.
The Purpose of the Housing Land Audit
1.4 The numerical requirement to provide land for housing is currently specified and updated through the structure plan process. SPP3: 'Planning for Housing' indicates that structure plans should identify the overall housing land requirement for a period of 12 years and the broad locations where this should be provided. This should be separated into two phases and should include a margin for flexibility to help avoid the need for an alteration to bring further land into the effective supply prior to the 5-yearly review.
1.5 SPP3 requires that local plans must conform to the structure plan and provide sufficient 'effective' land to meet the housing land requirement for at least 5 years from the date of adoption. Local Plans should also identify further sites to meet requirements in the medium term. SPP3 states that a sufficient effective land supply should be maintained for the following 5 years at all times. Consideration must also be given to whether the supply of housing includes a sufficient range of sites to meet the varying requirements of social providers and different parts of the housing market.
1.6 The HLA is the established mechanism for monitoring housing land, and therefore has a key role in ensuring that an adequate supply of housing to meet the structure plan requirement is maintained. SPP3 requires that the HLA be undertaken annually, with the close involvement of private house-builders and other providers.
1.7 Fundamental to the HLA process is the concept of the 'effective housing land supply', which is defined in the glossary of SPP3: 'Planning for Housing', as follows:
"That part of the established housing land supply that is expected to be free of development constraints in the period under consideration, and will therefore be available for the construction of housing".
1.8 Thus, the HLA involves the identification and monitoring of the land supply, the starting point being the identification of:
- all land with planning permission for residential development, including the remaining capacity of sites under construction;
- land allocated for residential development in adopted local plans; and
- other land with agreed residential potential, such as land identified in draft local plans or an urban capacity study.
Source: PAN 38
1.9 PAN 38 (paragraph 31) indicates that the HLA should specify the sites which can be programmed over a period of at least 7 years, and that planning authorities and housing providers should work together between audits to ensure that sites identified as effective are successfully developed.
Research Objectives
1.10 The Research project objectives are as follows:
- Assess current practice across a number of planning authorities in preparing, conducting and publishing housing land audits, including identifying what is 'effective'.
- Develop proposals for a system which would allow regular monitoring by the then Scottish Executive of summary information contained in the audits, to provide an overview of housing land supply in Scotland.
- Identify principles for a more standardised approach to carrying out the audit process in future, to maximise the value of the process for all parties, for example, considering whether small sites should be separately identified in the audit.
- The inclusion of housing land requirement within the published audit to allow monitoring of supply alongside need.
- The necessary level of engagement of house builders / infrastructure providers / other stakeholders in the audit process.
- Publication of audit documentation on council websites.
- Monitoring of sites included within the effective housing land supply, and review of their role where sites remain undeveloped over a period of time.
Methodology
1.11 The following outlines the methodology employed to achieve these objectives.
Collate baseline information on all of Scotland's Housing Land Audits
1.12 Key information has been collated on all HLAs including, publication date, period for review, outline methodology, timeframe for production, web access and approach to consultations.
1.13 Contact (via correspondence and telephone interviews) was made with every local authority / HLA team to clarify and confirm key data and thereby provide a concise overview on Audit preparation across Scotland.
- North East Scotland Together
- Dundee & Angus
- Argyll & Bute
- Stirling & Clackmannanshire
- Dumfries & Galloway
- Ayrshire
- Glasgow & Clyde Valley
- Edinburgh & Lothians
- Falkirk
- Fife
- Highland
- Moray
- Orkney
- Perth & Kinross
- Scottish Borders
- Shetland Islands
- Western Isles
Analyse a sample of past HLAs to identify how well they predicted actual house completions and the impact of 'windfall' development.
1.14 This was undertaken with respect to Audits undertaken in 2001, to assist the assessment of the effectiveness of current/recent practice and help to reach conclusions on best practice. The Audits produced in 2001 represent the most recent point in time at which there is now reasonably comprehensive data to test their predictive accuracy (i.e. a comparison of the 5 year effective housing land supply as stated in 2001 with the actual number of houses built from 2001 - 2006).
Interview selected HLA teams
1.15 The purpose of the interviews was to explore in more detail various aspects of the audit process, including preparation methodology; sources of data; the links with development plans, local housing strategies and other strategies; any "rules of thumb" used in programming land supply; and policies and consultation / agreement / conflict resolution processes. The areas examined, which are outlined below, were selected based on diversity of issues and willingness to assist in the research process:
- Edinburgh
- West Lothian
- East Lothian
- Midlothian
- Stirling
- West Dunbartonshire
- Renfrewshire
- Glasgow
Appendix 1 contains minutes of the meetings with the above Councils and Homes for Scotland.
Liaise with key stakeholders
1.16 This sought to identify how consultation is conducted and how agencies view their current and future role. We consulted the following organisations by letter and questionnaire:
- Homes for Scotland;
- Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors;
- Communities Scotland;
- Scottish Water;
- Transport Scotland; and
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency ( SEPA).
Transport Scotland and SEPA indicated that they do not participate in the HLA preparation process, but do refer to HLAs to assist in their forward planning.
Appendix 2 contains the letter and questionnaire sent to agencies, other than Homes for Scotland, who were interviewed (see Appendix 1).
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