Affordable Housing Securing Planning Consent, 2005-2008

1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

• This summary presents key statistics from the second survey of Planning Authorities on the amount of affordable housing provision granted planning consent during the 2005-2008 financial years. The survey records information on all affordable housing provision through the planning system - be it by public subsidy or developer contributions (either land/built units or commuted payments).
• The survey is a co-operative effort between Planning Authorities and the Scottish Government. Over the two surveys that have so far taken place, data has been received covering 33 of Scotland's 34 Planning Authorities for at least part of the survey period. Where data was not provided, this has been indicated alongside the tables. It should be borne in mind that the National totals are likely to be slightly higher than those shown, due to the non-responses.
• Planning Authorities were asked to provide information in a Register on each application with affordable housing provision, that was granted planning consent during 2005-2008 financial years. This includes both full and outline planning consents, though every effort has been taken to ensure that where a proposed development has received both, the units have not been double counted. It is important to stress that this survey is of Planning Consents for new affordable housing provision. It is not a survey of newly built affordable units or units under construction, rather information is recorded on affordable units at the first stage of delivery, i.e. the granting of planning consent. Further information on the survey's background and operation is available in the Annex.
• Profile Pages detailing councils' affordable housing policies, along with illustrative information on ratios of house prices-to-earnings and new build rates etc are available through the Planning Statistics web pages at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning/Publications
  
  Those examining the results of this survey summary for particular authorities may find it useful to refer to these Profile Pages for further context-setting information.

Chart 1: Primary Contribution Toward Affordable Housing, Scotland Total 2005/08

The following main points emerge from the 2005-2008 survey:

• An estimated 18,763 affordable housing units were granted planning consent during 2005/08. Of those 18,763 units, 5,538 were granted consent during 2005/06, 6,995 during 2006/07 and 6,230 during 2007/08.
• 76 per cent (14,319) of those units granted consent are to be publicly funded (i.e. no direct contribution from developers). This could include where a not-for-profit Registered Social Landlord ( RSL) intends to supply commercially raised funds. The remaining 24 per cent (4,444) is split between a variety of provisions. This includes where a private developer has agreed to contribute land or units for affordable housing to a RSL (or other body) at a price that allows for the provision of affordable housing or where the developer sells discount units privately at a below-market rate (See Table and Chart 1).

Table 1: Primary Contribution Toward Affordable Housing, Scotland Total 2005/08 ^1-2

1. Excludes Information from Moray for all years, and Argyll and Bute and Clackmannanshire for 2007/08
2. See Annex for further details on Contribution Types and the recording of Planning Applications
3. Figures on Hectares may not sum due to rounding
4. Entirely Public Contribution includes where a Registered Social Landlord intends to supply commercially raised funds
5. Developer Contributes Land/Units is where a developer agrees to provide built units to a Registered Social Landlord (or other body) at a price that allows for the provision of affordable housing

• In addition to the 18,763 affordable units granted planning consent, a further 573 planning applications (the vast majority for market-price housing) contained a developer commuted payment for affordable housing in return for planning consent. This was split across 53 applications in 2005/06, 153 during 2006/07 and 367 in 2007/08. Section 5 contains further information on commuted payments.
• Glasgow City had the largest number of affordable units granted planning consent (3,539 or 19 per cent of the national total). All those proposed units are to be publicly funded. This was followed by Highland (2,025 units, 11 per cent), Edinburgh (1,889 units, 10 per cent) and Fife (892 units, 5 per cent), of which were a mixture of consents between publicly funded and developer-contributed affordable housing. Section 3 contains further information on affordable housing provision by Planning Authority.