Planning – work programme update: Chief Planner and Ministerial letter - September 2024

Dear colleagues

We are writing to update you on our work programme and priorities, and to clarify our expectations for a number of areas of planning practice.

Scottish Government priorities

It is crucial that planning does all that it can to make Scotland the most attractive part of the UK to invest. The planning system plays a key role in delivering the Scottish Government’s priorities, including driving investment and the economy, delivering net zero and tackling the housing emergency. This year we will focus on actions to support these priorities, with wider activities paused or reprogrammed to subsequent years.

Since we published our consultation on ‘Investing in Planning’ in February, we have focused on identifying practical opportunities to improve the capacity and resources of the planning system. The summary of responses showed that there is a great deal of support for a range of actions that we can undertake. It is crucial that improvement is recognised as a shared responsibility, requiring effective partnership working and an understanding of the varying issues and circumstances that we are operating within.

This year’s Programme for Government recognises the importance of planning and sets out our intentions to:

• ensure the planning system responds to the housing emergency. This includes supporting planning authorities to allocate a pipeline of land for new homes as local development plans come forward and promoting consistent monitoring of its delivery.
• working with other parts of the Scottish Government to improve the planning and consenting regimes for renewable energy generation. This includes improving the consistency and pace of consenting.
• establishing Scotland’s first Planning Hub to build capacity and resilience and improve consistency. This will initially focus on hydrogen applications, but our intention is to extend this out to other development types, including housing and onshore wind proposals. The Hub will be hosted within the Improvement Service and led by the National Planning Improvement Champion. We will put in place initial infrastructure and develop a case for the longer-term over the coming year.
• support early adopters of Masterplan Consent Areas to frontload consents and support investment, including where they will help to delivery national developments, Green Freeports, housing and green data centres.
• launch a planning apprenticeship programme to invest in new talent to create a pipeline of skilled planners. Learning from initiatives already developed by some local authorities, we are initially focusing on building our inhouse capacity for consenting. We intend to design and develop arrangements for this in partnership with education and professional stakeholders this year, with a view to launching a scheme early in the next financial year, subject to funding being confirmed.

Supporting housing delivery

In our last letter, we outlined the importance of planning responding to the housing emergency. The Minister met with representatives of small and medium sized enterprise (SME) housebuilders at a meeting recently convened by Homes for Scotland to discuss the challenges they are currently experiencing. We have also been involved in discussions seeking to prioritise those actions which could have the greatest impact in responding to the housing emergency in the short term.

Whilst we recognise that many of the issues raised are for local authorities in the first instance, we would like to work all parties involved to address some of the commonly reported issues raised by applicants as far as possible. We would therefore ask you to remind planning service teams of the legal tests for planning conditions, in particular the importance of ensuring that they are necessary in every case, and that due consideration is given to the economic viability of proposals as they are progressed. 

SME experiences of the planning system suggest that there would be real benefit in making processes more predictable and consistent. We are therefore supporting Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) to take forward and promote work on templates for conditions this financial year, as well as for Section 75 agreements which are often a source of significant delay for individual decisions. Beyond this, we have also asked HOPS to bring together and promote good practice in corporate working within local authorities to align regulatory services and better support delivery of new homes.

We recently discussed issues raised by SMEs with the Chief Executives of the key agencies. We intend to take forward some actions with this group which we expect to benefit SMEs and other developers. Further updates will be provided as this work firms up.

The work of the National Planning Improvement Champion (NPIC) is also playing an important role in identifying opportunities for improvement in the planning service which will benefit all applicants. We are grateful to planning authorities for their positive and constructive engagement with the roll out the new National Planning Improvement Framework and to the NPIC for his continued leadership. 

Implementing National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4)

Policy 2: Climate mitigation and adaptation

We are in the process of preparing new Planning and Climate Change guidance. Informed by an Expert Advisory Group, the guidance will support implementation of NPF4 policy 2. It will aid the integration of climate considerations into development proposals, helping to avoid maladaptation, whilst supporting emissions reduction and increased resilience to climate risks. 

To inform the guidance, we published research findings to identify relevant information sources, tools, methods and approaches that can be used to help demonstrate whether and how lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of development proposals have been minimised. 

Over the coming months we will continue to engage with key stakeholders to inform the final guidance, and ensure the overall approach is proportionate, practical and offers a meaningful contribution to supporting delivery of NPF4.

Policy 11: Energy

We recognise that there is some ongoing debate about the application of Policy 11(c) and on the role of community benefits alongside policy considerations on maximising economic impact.  The Scottish Government is clear that community benefits are a well-established and integral part of onshore renewable energy developments in Scotland, supported by the Scottish Government’s Good Practice Principles. We are, however, clear that these are voluntary arrangements that sit independent of our planning and consenting systems, and NPF4 policy 11(c) does not alter this.  

Following recent discussions with Heads of Planning Scotland and with the renewables sector, we will shortly convene a roundtable discussion, bringing together key stakeholders to collaborate on the ongoing application of this policy.

Policy 17 rural homes and policy 29 rural development

We continue to hear concerns from stakeholders about the implementation of the above policies. Whilst it is recognised that the character of, and pressures within, rural areas across Scotland varies significantly, we would like to remind planning authorities that their intent is essentially positive, to encourage economic activity and associated homes. It appears that in some cases wider policies, including on transport and local living are also being applied in a way that is particularly restrictive of rural development. However, these policies have been drafted to build in flexibility, see for example our published guidance on local living and 20 minute neighbourhoods guidance .

Policy 22: Flood risk and water management

We are aware that policy 22 has generated debate. We have brought together colleagues from across the Scottish Government, planning authorities, SEPA, and relevant professional bodies to discuss this, and we have also convened a discussion with developers. In the meantime, SEPA has published new and updated guidance[1] to support NPF4 delivery which has been developed with input from planning authorities, the Scottish Government and wider delivery partners. SEPA continues to welcome comments on its guidance, and will update this further as practice continues to bed-in.

There has been debate specifically on the application of the appropriate allowance for climate change. The Scottish Government has commissioned a ClimateXChange (‘CxC’) research project ‘Future climate in today’s decisions’. This aims to support the use of future climate scenarios and hazards in today’s decision-making and is expected to report in November. The Scottish Government and SEPA will review and update relevant guidance, as appropriate, in light of the findings.

Supplementary guidance – adoption before 31 March 2025 

In the new local development plan system, supplementary guidance does not form part of the statutory development plan. Transitional arrangements provide a period until 31 March 2025 for the adoption of statutory supplementary guidance.  

Planning authorities must send the Scottish Ministers a copy of any supplementary guidance they intend to adopt, and Ministers can direct modifications to them. There is a 28-day period for Ministers to consider proposed supplementary guidance, which can be extended. We are aware that a number of planning authorities intend to adopt further pieces of supplementary guidance before March 2025. Given the extendable 28-day period, and the need to allow time for authorities to adopt their supplementary guidance with any directed modifications, we would strongly encourage planning authorities to submit any supplementary guidance they wish to adopt before the cut off via the DP Gateway by early December 2024.

Infrastructure Levy for Scotland

On 3 June we published a discussion paper on an Infrastructure Levy for Scotland. The paper is intended to support discussion and engagement until the end of September on options for how an Infrastructure Levy taken forward under powers in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 could operate in practice. We are keen to have an open and constructive discussion with practitioners from different sectors to help inform the policy development process, and have already benefitted from a number of helpful engagements. Subject to these discussions, we intend to publish a public consultation on draft regulations in early 2025.

If you would like to arrange a discussion with the Scottish Government team or submit any comments on the discussion points, please contact Infrastructure.Levy@gov.scot.

Section 75 agreements and delays in the system

The time taken to prepare, negotiate and conclude legal agreements can slow down the process of granting planning applications, in some cases significantly. The annual planning application statistics published in July 2023 showed that applications which were subject to a legal agreement took an average of almost a year longer than applications without a legal agreement.

This is not a new issue. In 2016 the Scottish Government convened a short life working group with planning authorities to identify common issues which may lead to delays in negotiating and concluding Section 75 Agreements.

As a result we published 10 good practice points in 2017 to help local authorities minimise delays. These points remain valid today.

Building on this, stakeholders have suggested developing a standard template for Section 75 agreements. Earlier this year, the Applicant Stakeholder Group, which reports to the High Level Group on Planning Performance, met with HOPS and SOLAR to discuss this and the approach taken by Aberdeenshire Council to establish a standard template, for which the council won a Scottish Planning Award and which was highlighted an example of good practice. Please find a video explaining more.

We would strongly encourage authorities and applicants to consider the above highlighted good practice and seek to improve on current processes where possible. Ensuring that the process for preparing, negotiating and concluding legal agreements is more efficient should lead to benefits for both applicants and authorities. Investing time in working with key stakeholders to agree a standard template should not only save time and resource for planning authorities, but should also result in greater certainty and shorter decision times for applicants.

Proportionality of assessments Short Life Working Group

The Scottish Government has established a short life working group which will explore how we can improve the proportionality of planning assessments. Stakeholders have raised concerns about inconsistency across authorities around information requirements, with varying requirements and level of detail within assessments creating a significant time and resource cost for both applicants and authorities alike.

We are aware that there has been good practice in this area, including the work by Heads of Planning Scotland to set out guidance on validation of applications. It is hoped the short life working group will identify and share this practice where it exists. Using feedback from practitioners, and adopting a light touch improvement approach, the group will identify any opportunities for improvement and recommended actions.

The group met for its initial scoping meeting in June to set out its intentions for the rest of the year. While economic investment, climate and housing are all Scottish Government priorities, the group’s initial focus at the next meeting will be on housing as an area where an immediate impact could be made. The group intends to process map and workshop examples of applications in order to identify key issues and good practice.

Land for growing produce, community growing, and allotments

We have heard from some stakeholders who have found it challenging to identify how proposals for community growing relate to the planning system.

The Scottish Government is supportive of community growing and allotments. NPF4 policy 20(b) supports growing spaces in principle, and policy 23(a) also encourages developments that will have positive effects on health, noting that this could include proposals with opportunities for exercise, community food growing or allotments. Community growing is also noted as a potential contributor to local living and to the six qualities of successful places. The Central Scotland Green Network national development includes proposals for allotments or community food growing at scale (over 2 hectares).

Wider Scottish Government policies and legislation also support community food growing, including its local food strategy ‘Local Food for Everyone’ (January 2024) and part 9 of the Community Empowerment Act.

Section 26(2)(e) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 sets out that land for the purposes of agriculture or forestry does not constitute development, and the Scottish Government considers that use of land for allotments can be viewed as agriculture. In practice it is for planning authorities to determine whether permission is required.

Where the focus is on using the land for growing and there is no associated development, it is not expected that planning permission will be required. However, associated development such as access roads and sheds on allotments are likely to need permission. Planning fees will be applicable in such circumstances. This varies depending on the area covered by the development. Planning authorities can waive and reduce fees, in line with their published charter setting out the circumstances where this would be the case. Charters must include, but are not limited to, applications which are primarily contributing to a ‘not for profit’ or social enterprise, and applications which the planning authority considers likely to contribute to improving the health of residents.

We trust this letter is of assistance. Thank you for your support and collaboration to date – we look forward to continuing to work with you in the coming months.

Yours faithfully

                              

Fiona Simpson, Chief Planner

Ivan McKee MSP, Minister for Public Finance