Scottish Government

HNDA Stocktake

• In 2010, the Scottish Government met Local and Planning Authorities to gather their views on producing HNDAs. Their main concern was a need to reduce the cost and complexity of HNDAs. Other issues included; HNDA Guidance refinements on some topics, clarity on how HNDA outputs inform planning and housing policy and advice on the operation of Housing Market Partnerships. The Scottish Government is progressing these issues. The principles and purpose of HNDAs and robust & credible will not change.

HNDA TooL

• To help reduce the cost and complexity of HNDAs the CHMA has developed an HNDA Tool using Excel. The Tool estimates the amount and tenure of new housing which authorities need to provide. It uses national data as a starting point but authorities can use local data if they wish. It includes a choice of scenarios which authorities must agree with their Housing Market Partnerships. Authorities may use their own scenarios. It outputs for different geographies relevant to local housing markets and contains Housing Market Area data as supplied by local authorities and the National Parks.
• A schematic of how the Tool works is also available. Full documentation will be available shortly.
• Following their release by Heriot Watt University, the CHMA has explored the possibility of using the new small area income estimates to inform the Tool’s affordability calculations. The new income estimates have some key advantages over existing sources of income, namely that they are publically available, they are designed for use at a small area level and they are underpinned by a fully transparent methodology. These estimates are included in the tool as an option at the moment.
• An earlier Release Candidate version of the Tool  contains some placeholder data and has a separate version for Office 2003 (view in Excel).
• The release version, [version 1.0] of the Tool is currently only available in Office 2010 format (view in Excel). The size and complexity of the data means that a full version that is compatible with Office 2003 is not possible (as the 256 column constraint of this version of Office is exceeded). A limited version that is Office 2003 compatible will be released shortly and CHMA are happy to work with stakeholders who require this backwards compatibility.

 

Link	Description	Publication Date
Stakeholder Presentation Accompanying Speaking Notes	Powerpoint presentation setting out the Scottish Government's initial plans for the HNDA guidance refresh. Notes to accompany the above presentation.	August 2011
Stakeholder Events Feedback	Background to the HNDA stock take and guidance refresh and a summary of findings from local authority stakeholder events in Perth and Glasgow.	February 2011