SCOTLAND'S public finance minister has pledged changes to the planning system to help it play a “full part” in tackling the country’s housing emergency.
Ivan McKee announced a specialist hub is to be created to help increase the rate at which homes for which planning permission has been granted are delivered.
The new hub, which should be up and running early next year, is being staffed and funded by the Scottish Government.
McKee also pledged the Government would treble the number of bursaries being made available to post-graduate students looking to study planning, and added that a “fuller package of training” is being developed for local councillors who have to make planning decisions.
The public finance minister announced the actions the day after he admitted he is “concerned” about the length of time it takes for projects to get planning permission.
But in a statement to Holyrood he insisted that “planning is not the only, or even the most significant, reason for the challenges we are facing in housing”.
McKee said that “across Scotland, we estimate that more than 164,000 homes have planning permission but have not yet been built”.
He added: “In the Glasgow and Edinburgh city regions alone, planning permission has been granted for 121,000 homes that have not yet been built. Of these, around 38,000 units have been started but are not yet complete.”
Saying that what was needed was “action to turn those permissions into homes”, he claimed that making progress on the number of “stalled” planning applications would be an “absolute priority” for the Scottish Government.
To help with that, McKee announced the creation of the Housing Planning Hub, saying ministers want it to “enable more efficient, responsive and timely decisions and delivery”.
Home building body Homes for Scotland (HFS) welcomed the announcement with chief executive Jane Wood saying it gives an "opportunity for a positive reset" and the group will play a "full part" in the system refresh.
She added: “In the context of the housing emergency, this announcement is six months overdue but nonetheless very welcome, recognising as it does the key role that the planning system has to play in facilitating the delivery of more homes of all tenures across Scotland and the need for it to be properly equipped to do so.
"It is clear that the minister has clearly listened to sector concerns and taken steps to address them. We applaud him for doing so, and to committing to ensuring tangible results in the next 12 months.
“Given the scale of the challenge that faces us, this will be no easy task and there is clearly much detail to be unpicked – for example, we do not recognise the figures referenced regarding the number of homes having been granted planning permission but not yet built and would suggest that they do not reflect either the complexity of the myriad of issues facing home builders or the very real nature of the housing emergency."
However, after McKee said that steps had already been taken so that councils could increase planning fees so they can “recoup more of the costs” Tory housing spokesperson Meghan Gallacher raised fears this could deter developers.
Hitting out at the Government over this and the plans for a new planning hub, she accused McKee of making “an admission of defeat”.
The Conservative said: “I was hoping for some ground-breaking planning legislation to build more homes, a plan to fix the challenges we are facing right across our housing sector.
“Yet we have been left with another hub, and an increase in planning application costs that will deter future housing developments.”
The Tory told the minister: “It is his government that are standing in the way of building more homes.”
