Scotland 2045 - fourth National Planning Framework - draft housing land requirement: explanatory report

Next Steps

92. Draft NPF4 is now the subject of public consultation and parliamentary scrutiny. This includes consideration of the proposed MATHLR. Parliament will be at liberty to receive evidence on the MATHLR in its entirety or in part. In parallel with parliamentary scrutiny, public consultation will result in views and representations being made. Subject to these considerations, this may result in amendments to the MATHLR presented in the published NPF4.

93. NPF4 will provide a consistent, evidenced and transparent approach to housing land requirements and will have been considered by the Scottish Parliament. It will be a starting point from which each LDP will build.

94. Once NPF4 is adopted and published, there is a statutory requirement for it to be taken into account by planning authorities when preparing LDPs. There is not a statutory requirement for it to be consistent however, it is expected that the MATHLR will be the minimum amount of housing land to be identified within LDPs across Scotland.

95. The MATHLR, as it is a minimum, can be revised upward as LDPs are prepared, where robust evidence supports this. The production of the Evidence Report will inform the housing land requirement building from NPF4's MATHLR. It will take account of any updated evidence, for example household projections, local need figures or recent policy drivers. It will also consider implications of the broader housing system, including a robust and credible HNDA and consideration of updated LHSs. The housing land requirement will then be established at the LDP gatecheck.

96. The LDPs will go onto to allocate sites to meet their housing land requirement. The aim is for planning to shift to be more directive about the quality of places, including guiding where new development should happen and how those developments can deliver more for new and existing communities. As the proposed figures are to be used as a starting point, debate should be minimised thereby freeing up planning authority capacity to focus on quality, location and delivery.

97. A supporting Delivery Programme for each LDP will set out how an authority propose to implement its plan. It will be instrumental to achieving an outcomes-focussed approach to development planning. The Delivery Programme will proactively support delivery of the LDP, including housing provision. It will identify the phasing of a pipeline of deliverable housing land and it will link to monitoring via the Housing Land Audit to inform actions to support delivery or amendment/review of the plan.

98. Changes made through the package of planning reform seek to enable authorities to focus their resources on place and delivery, emphasising planners' role in co-ordinating levers across authorities, wider public sector and the private sector to support delivery of development, including housing, that achieves the wider outcomes intended.