Fresh from collecting the “One to Watch” award at the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards 2025, Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Màiri McAllan MSP, borrowed from John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States of America, when outlining her ambitions for addressing the national housing emergency in Scotland at a recent Prosper event hosted in Brodies’ Edinburgh office.
“A rising tide lifts all boats” was often used by Kennedy as a metaphor meaning that broad economic growth benefits everyone. The Cabinet Secretary used it to support her decision to include a target to increase housing delivery across all tenures by at least 10% each year for the next three years in her Housing Emergency Action Plan as she outlined why affordable housing and market housing should be seen as mutually reinforcing each other rather than conflicting; a view which the housebuilding industry has been expressing to Scottish Government for many years.
McAllan highlighted the Action Plan which she published at the start of September and the passing of the Housing (Scotland) Bill at the end of the same month as the two key products of her first few months in office, having spent 8-9 weeks trying to understand why Scotland finds itself in a national housing emergency.
Supply not keeping up with demand, leading to homelessness; the financial crash; austerity; COVID; rising construction costs; and Government policy were all factors in the housing emergency the Cabinet Secretary suggested as she stressed the need for stability, certainty and opportunity to encourage investment into Scotland and the housing sector in particular.
She mentioned the £4.9billion of multi-annual funding for affordable housing and the exemption of purpose-built student accommodation, build-to-rent and mid-market rent properties from rent controls as providing a new policy dawn which should give investors confidence and encourage new housing supply.
McAllan also stressed the importance of skills development; innovative funding models; modern methods of construction to speed up delivery; and a facilitative planning and regulatory environment. She stressed that she didn’t regard the publication of the Housing Emergency Action Plan as “job done” and explained that she is working with Ivan McKee, the Planning Minister, to improve the current timescales for determining planning applications for housing development.
With the latest planning application statistics showing that during the last two quarters of 2024/25 the average (mean) decision time for major housing applications was 77.9 weeks in Q3 and 49.9 weeks in Q4 and the average decision time for local housing developments in Q3 was 20.4 weeks and 20.0 weeks in Q4, there is certainly room for improvement.
The Cabinet Secretary pointed to the stalled sites programme and her letter to planning authorities stressing the need for an emergency-led approach and proportionality for SME housebuilders as important initiatives to speed up the planning process, alongside the “surge capacity” available in the National Planning Hub to support and speed up local decision-making.
The notification direction for all applications for housing over 10 units was introduced, she said, in response to the move away from the presumption in favour of sustainable development under NPF4 and the Cabinet Secretary confirmed that her officials are monitoring the handling of notified applications continually so that they can see which planning authorities might benefit from Hub assistance.
While maintaining the previously expressed view that Scottish Government cannot tell local planning authorities what to do (despite having powers to call-in planning applications in the national interest), McAllan did say that she would be outlining clear lines of sight for local authorities on what the Scottish Government expects of them.
She expressed concern at the ongoing delays in the adoption of new local development plans (LDPs) and referenced an upcoming meeting with local authorities to drive ambition in and expedite delivery of new LDPs, acknowledging that her ambitions to address the housing emergency will fail if the release of housing land has to await the adoption of the next generation of LDPs which might not be until 2030/31. The Cabinet Secretary went as far as to say that she is “open-minded” about the presumption in favour of plan-led development which perhaps hints at much needed interim guidance on the release of non-allocated housing land to address the LDP delays and the difficulties caused by NPF4 Policy 16(f).
Overall, the Cabinet Secretary was remarkably candid. She clearly has a good grasp of all the issues and is, as she said herself, ambitious about what can be achieved while recognising that she will be judged on those same achievements. But she can’t do it on her own and that may well be the problem. She needs local planning authorities and Scottish Government Reporters to share her vision and start consenting new housing.
John F Kennedy is remembered for his youthful charisma and inspiring leadership during a period of immense challenge. Time (and the number of new build completions) will tell whether Mairi McAllan should be similarly remembered as Cabinet Secretary for Housing. She is, after all, One to Watch.
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