The 'Delivering More Homes for Scotland: barriers and solutions' paper, published by Homes for Scotland (HfS), sets out in clear terms some often misunderstood issues, such as how home builders value potential development sites, how homes themselves are valued, the interaction between house prices and land prices and how a typical development is currently taxed (including the developer contributions used to capture some of the land value uplift to fund infrastructure).
The paper states: "The real barriers to the delivery of new homes are the lack of the following;
• Mortgage availability to those who could afford the repayments, due to the requirement for signi cant deposits
• Home builders, especially of a smaller scale
• Longer-term certainty of funding for social and mid-market rented accommodation
• An experienced workforce to supply the skills needed to deliver the homes
• Funding for associated infrastructure – roads, water systems, schools etc
• Support for new homes from some local authority staff, councillors and existing residents
• A planning system that embraces, and can quickly consent, buildable developments."
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A number of solutions to these problems are posed by HfS, including meaningful support for small-scale home builders to increase industry capacity, the exploration of options for a new town-type model for large-scale housing delivery and ensuring that the planning system is collaborative, fully-resourced and able to deliver decisions quickly.
Chief Executive Nicola Barclay said there is too little information available to help those outside the industry better understand the challenges involved within the home building industry.
"It is our job to fill that information gap and show the positive role our industry plays in Scotland –significantly contributing to debate as well as to the country's social wellbeing and economic success," she said.
"Rather than just critiquing the ideas of others, we wanted to provide genuinely useful information that will support better informed policy-making. We want this paper to mark a huge step forward in public understanding of home building.
"Scotland's home builders are a positive part of our country's future. It is therefore vital that land reform, planning reform and all other changes that affect them are informed by them."
HFS Director of Planning, Tammy Swift-Adams, said: "There are real challenges on the horizon that could have serious unintended consequences for Scotland as a whole, not just our industry. Changes to planning appeal rights are an obvious example, but our members are also concerned that their ability to deliver more homes will be directly affected if land reform proposals are not brought forward in close discussion with those who are building homes now.
"HFS has been at the forefront of calls to make the planning system more collaborative. For Scotland to succeed, we need to deliver the homes its people need and aspire to live in. Everyone involved – from policy-makers to builders and communities – needs to consider what homes we want, where we want them and how they will be delivered.
"Our paper provides practical information that can be put to use by policy-makers and other opinion-shapers to make sure major reforms genuinely enable the delivery of more new homes by companies building now and new entrants to the market."
To view the 'Delivering More Homes for Scotland: barriers and solutions' paper, visit here.
(LM)
