On 16 September, Elaine Farquharson-Black and Jenna Monteith attended the Homes for Scotland Annual Conference at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. The event focused on a timely question: what role can the proposed More Homes Scotland agency play in tackling Scotland's housing emergency and increasing housing delivery?
Scotland's housing challenges are well documented. We know that supply is constrained, that affordability remains a concern, and that infrastructure, planning and viability issues continue to affect developments across the country. The challenge facing the sector is no longer one of identifying the problem. It is delivery.
A familiar diagnosis
Whether hearing from Pat Ritchie of Homes England, Mark Harris of the Home Builders' Federation on the Welsh experience, or Conor O'Connell of the Irish Home Builders' Association, the same themes emerged.
We need more homes.
We need investment.
We need infrastructure to support growth.
We need planning systems that are properly resourced and capable of responding to demand.
The right prescription?
The proposed More Homes Scotland agency was at the centre of much of the discussion. Lauren McNamara, the agency's Programme Director, outlined progress to date, and a panel considered the role it could play in bringing together government, developers, housing associations and infrastructure providers.
However, the housing sector is not short of organisations, policy initiatives or working groups. What it needs is not another diagnosis, but a mechanism capable of removing barriers to delivery.
Success will not be measured by the number of consultations undertaken or reports produced, but by whether more homes are built.
The agency's stated ambition of delivering housing with greater simplicity, scale and speed is difficult to argue with. The real challenge will be translating those aspirations into tangible outcomes on sites across Scotland.
Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure
One issue surfaced repeatedly during conversations at the event, both on and off the stage: infrastructure.
Many developments have planning support, willing developers and market demand. Yet progress remains dependent on roads, schools, drainage, utilities and wider infrastructure capacity.
The challenge is particularly acute where substantial infrastructure costs fall disproportionately on the first developer through the door. In those circumstances, viability can quickly become strained and delivery delayed.
This is not a new ailment, but as expectations around developer contributions increase and viability pressures remain acute, there is a growing need for innovative approaches to infrastructure funding and delivery.
There is a real opportunity here for More Homes Scotland. If it can help align infrastructure investment and housing delivery, coordinate stakeholders and unlock stalled sites, it may well become one of the most significant interventions available to the sector.
Planning reform is only part of the answer
Planning inevitably featured heavily. While there is broad support for measures aimed at improving planning performance, there was also recognition that planning reform alone will not solve Scotland's housing shortage.
Viability, infrastructure provision, utility connections, funding and construction costs all influence whether a site proceeds to delivery.
The conversation needs to be broader than planning reform: the objective should be creating an environment where delivery is both practically achievable and commercially viable. Without that, even the most efficient planning system will struggle to unlock the level of delivery Scotland requires. That broader context was reflected in Cabinet Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville's keynote address. Housing is no longer a standalone cabinet brief as it was when Màiri McAllan became the first dedicated Cabinet Secretary for Housing in the history of the Scottish Parliament. That role has now been merged into Ms Somerville's broader Social Justice and Housing portfolio, a move that drew concern from parts of the sector. It was encouraging, then, to hear a clear commitment to housing delivery.
The importance of certainty
One theme that ran through the day was the value of certainty.
Development projects operate over long timescales. Land acquired today may not deliver completed homes for many years. Confidence in policy, infrastructure funding and regulatory frameworks is therefore critically important.
Developers do not expect every challenge to disappear, but they do need certainty that the treatment plan will not change mid-course.
The jurisdictions examined at the event each offered different models, but one common thread was the benefit of consistency and long-term commitment, qualities often just as valuable as funding support or regulatory reform.
The prognosis
The agency presents an opportunity to think differently about how housing is delivered in Scotland. Debate will continue about what form that should take.
The sector knows the symptoms. It has heard the diagnosis. The more significant question is whether More Homes Scotland can help deliver the remedy and the one thing that almost everyone at the conference agreed Scotland needs more of:
Homes.
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