To be relevant, planning for housing must move away from debating overly complicated housing figures and calculation methodologies to focus much more on enabling development of quality homes and creating quality places to live.
These were the words of the Scottish Government in the explanatory note on housing land requirement which accompanied the draft of NPF4 back in 2021.
And move away it has, with the recent Mossend decision confirming that under NPF4 there is no need to maintain a five year effective land supply of housing at all times. There is no agreed methodology for calculating housing need nor supply.
And yet the housing figures have never been more stark.
The most recent Housing Statistics published by ONS on 25 June 2024 highlight that new build housing starts have dropped 16% and new build completions have reduced by 13% from FY 2022-2023 to FY 2023-24. year. Starts were at the lowest point since 2014-15 and lower than when the COVID pandemic affected housebuilding. New build completions were the second lowest since 2017-18 (with the lowest point in 2020-21, where COVID restrictions affected housebuilding).
Even more worryingly given the Scottish Government's target to build 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, social sector housing starts dropped by 14% and completions by 27% in the same period. Only 21,092 affordable homes have been completed towards the national target.
The open letter to the First Minister from a coalition of housing and anti-poverty organisations outlining their recommendations for addressing the national housing emergency contains a list of "emergency numbers" on various housing issues including need; waiting lists; temporary accommodation; and homelessness.
These numbers were seized upon by opposition MSPs in Holyrood when questioning the Housing Minister, Paul McLennan on his Ministerial Statement setting out the Scottish Government's response to the housing emergency.
The Minister's action plan has 3 pillars – more high-quality homes; the right homes in the right places; and a permanent home for everyone.
To help deliver more high-quality homes, the Minister pointed to Scottish Government's investment of around £600m in an affordable housing supply programme in 2024-25, an increase of £80m from previous announcements but still £163m less than in 2023-24, and announced the reopening of its open market shared equity scheme for first time buyers and priority access groups.
The second pillar will see collaboration with local authority partners to ensure that strategic housing investment plans reflect the full range of housing priorities and the third pillar will see some of the additional £80m being used to reduce the numbers and average time spent in temporary accommodation.
The focus will be on activity which will reduce harm, particularly that experienced by households with children and that means that work on a new tenure-neutral housing standard will be rescheduled, along with implementation of new homelessness prevention duties on local authorities.
With 8 local authorities having declared a housing emergency, the Housing Minister called on them to share the actions that they are taking in response and urged all parts of Scotland's housing market to work together to tackle the housing crisis.
The Planning Minister and Chief Planner have just issued a letter of clarification on NPF 4 Policy 16f following the Mossend decision advising that local authorities must adopt an ambitious approach to providing housing land and reminding decision makers that the intent of Policy 16 is to encourage, promote and facilitate the delivery of more high quality, affordable and sustainable homes in the right locations.
The Scottish Government is correct: housing is much more than a numbers game. Behind each number is an individual or a family without a safe, secure and affordable home. The numbers show that 45 children become homeless in Scotland every day. Action needs to be taken quickly to show that they aren’t just a number, but they do count.
Contributor
Partner
