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Affordable Housing Shortfall

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations is concerned that present policies are blocking the delivery of space for socially-rented homes.

SFHA chairman Brian Gegan said in August: “Our members cannot compete any longer on the open market. If affordable housing is to increase, we need access to land on which to build.  Private builders have accumulated landbanks that they only release when it is commercially advantageous.  We need to reconfigure the planning system.”

Task force members Cosla, the Chartered Institute of Housing, Shelter Scotland and the SFHA are calling for 30,000 new affordable rented homes in the next three years to address shortages across the country.

One of the key problems is the difficulty in holding developers to quotas for affordable housing.  Under the executive’s planning advice note 74, local authorities can require a 25% proportion of new land to be set aside for affordable housing.

Shelter Scotland believes builders are too easily able to buy their way out of such commitments by providing other amenities or taking a few thousand pounds off the market price of luxury developments.

Director Archie Stoddart said: “Quota policies for delivery of affordable housing need to be firmly enforced.  Planners much also be more robust in negotiating with developers who try to offer other forms of planning gain – such as landscaping or planting – rather than affordable housing.  Building the affordable element away in one corner, or over a railway line, are not what mixed communities are about.”

Housebuilders were keen to assert that they had a positive role to play in helping meet the shortage.

Gerry More, chairman of Cala Homes in Scotland, said: “Cala provides mixed communities as part of its developments and works with local authorities to provide either funding for affordable housing, or land to allow for this on site.

“The requirements for the provision of affordable housing vary from area to area and we would welcome a consistent approach across Scotland.”