Small housing developers in Scotland: report

Annex B: Detailed analysis of Obstacles by groups of respondents - to supplement summary in Chapter 3

This annex sets out details of the obstacles experienced by respondents disaggregated by size and geographical situation. Please note the caveat in Chapter 1 concerning sample sizes. Further please note that in some cases the count (number of respondent giving this answer) will be higher than the base as some categories have been collapsed (several similar categories aggregated).

Obstacles - Small and Medium

We analysed the findings from the three obstacle questions (top three in the past, any others in the past and top three for the future) by small and medium sized respondents. For details of the responses see Table B.3 at the end of this annex. There is a high level summary of the data in Chapter 3 and Table B.1 below sets out slightly more detailed summary, which all the discussion in this section is drawn from.

Table B.1: Obstacles past and future - Small and Medium sized respondents

Obstacles	Small Top three		Medium Top three
	Past Base 51	Future Base 50	Past Base 14	Future Base 14
Financial	52	41	9	7
Infrastructure (S75)	21	38	3	10
Planning	25	25	5	8
Utilities	17	23	7	10
Land	7	0	1	0
Market demand	6	0	1	0
Lack of skills	4	17	1	4

Financial obstacles - small and medium

The 51 small sized developers who answered the question on their top three obstacles over the past three years cited finance as an issue 52 times. Notably a lack of development finance was cited by the largest number (21/51 see Table B.3). Proportionally the medium sized developers that responded to our survey did not experience financial obstacles to the same degree, nevertheless nine financial obstacles were cited by the 14 medium sized developers who answered this question.

As for the future, fewer respondents in both small and medium sized categories expected to experience financial obstacles, nevertheless it was still a top three obstacle with 41 citations from the 50 respondents in the small group and 7 from the 14 in the medium group. These findings suggest that there was some optimism about finance in the future but respondents still expected financial obstacles.

Planning Obstacles - Small and Medium

The issue cited by the next largest number of developers in both the small and medium groups was obstacles caused by the planning system (25 of 51 and 5 of 14). The issues included inability to get consent, bureaucracy, delays and inconsistency. There were no differences between the types of issues stated by small and medium sized respondent groups.

For the respondents in the small group the number who said they expect to have planning issues in the future was the same as in the past (25 of 50 although on a slightly different base). For the medium sized group there was an increase to 8 (of 14 from 5 of 14).

Infrastructure (S75) Obstacles - Small and Medium

The 51 respondents in the small group cited infrastructure obstacles 21 times and the 14 in the medium sized group only cited them three times. More respondents in each group expected to face issues of this type in the future (38 of 51 small group 10 of 14 medium group). The main issue within this general category for those in the small group was the cost and financing of infrastructure which was specifically cited as an expected obstacle by 20 respondents.

Utility delays - Small and Medium

Seventeen of the 51 respondents from the small group had experienced delays with utility provision over the previous three years as did 7 (of 14) in the medium group . In both groups more respondents expected this to be a problem in the future (23 of 50 small group and 10 of 14 medium group), but proportionally this issue was expected to be more prevalent for the medium group.

Land availability and lack of skills - Small and Medium

Two other issues that showed a difference between the obstacles the small and medium groups of respondents were experiencing and expecting were the availability of land and lack of skills.

Seven of the 51 in the small group had land availability issues in the past but only 1 of the 14 in the medium sized group. None of either group expected the issue to arise as an obstacle to building in the future.

For a lack of skills a similar proportion had experienced them in the past (4 of 51 for the small group and 1 of 14 for the medium group) but in the future 17(of 51) from the small group expected a lack of skills to provide an obstacle but only 4 (of 14) from the medium group meaning the small group were slightly more likely to expect these issues.

Obstacles conclusion - small and medium

There are some differences between the obstacles experienced and expected by the respondents we have defined as small and medium. The medium group were less likely to cite financial issues in the past, proportionally more of the medium sized group expected to experience planning issues in the future whereas for the small group the same numbers expected this problem. Also for the future more medium sized respondents expected utility delays than the smaller respondents but proportionately slightly more from the small group expected to face a lack of skills.

Obstacles - Rural, Semi-rural and Urban

Our analysis of the obstacles respondents reported on by whether the respondent was classified as undertaking the majority of their business in rural, semi-rural and urban is set out in full in Table B.4 below. There is a high level summary and analysis in Chapter 3 and a slightly more detailed summary in Table B.2, in which all the data discussed in this section is set out.

Table B.2: Obstacles Past and Future - Rural, Semi-rural, Urban

Obstacles	Rural		Semi		Urban
	Past Base 38	Future Base 37	Past Base 17	Future Base 16	Past Base 10	Future Base 11
Financial	36	28	13	10	12	10
Infrastructure	17	28	11	15	0	5
Planning	16	22	12	6	2	5
Utilities	17	23	6	7	1	3
Land supply	4	8	0	2	4	5
Market demand	4	0	0	0	3	0
Lack of Skills	3	11	2	7	0	3

Financial obstacles - Rural, Semi-rural and Urban

The 38 rural respondents who answered the question on the top three obstacles they had experienced in the past cited 36 financial issues, urban respondents also cited a high proportion of financial issues (12 citations from 10). In contrast for respondents working mainly in semi-rural areas a smaller proportion cited financial issues in their top three obstacles (13 of 17), although the numbers experiencing them was still a high proportion.

Fewer respondents working predominantly in rural areas expect financial issues to pose obstacles for them in the following five years than had in the previous three years, although there were still 28 citations of financial issues (from 37 respondents ). The numbers of semi-rural and urban respondents citing financial issues in the future are also fewer than the past, like rural respondents significant proportions still expect problems, most notably from urban respondents with 10 citations from 11 respondents.

Infrastructure Obstacles - Rural, Semi-rural and Urban

The 38 rural respondents cited 17 infrastructure issues as obstacles to building in the past and the 17 semi- rural respondents cited 11. Notably the 10 urban respondents that answered this question cited no infrastructure issues.

In each of the three groups more respondents expected infrastructure issues in the following five years. For rural respondents we recorded 28 citations (from 37), the 16 semi-rural respondents cited 15 issues and five citations came from the 11 urban respondents.

Planning Obstacles - Rural, Semi-rural and Urban

Table B.2 shows that planning issues were cited as an issue in the previous three years for 16 (from 38) rural respondents, 12 (from 17) semi-rural respondents and only 2 (from 10) urban respondents.

In the following five years more rural respondents (22 from 37) and urban respondents (5 from 11) were expecting planning issues whereas fewer semi-rural respondents expected these issues (6 from 16).

Utility Delays - Rural, Semi-Rural and Urban

The same amount of rural respondents that reported a problem with infrastructure issues reported problems with utilities in the past (17 from 38). Only 6 (from 17) of the semi-rural group and one (from 10) of the urban group. The numbers expecting utility delays in the future rose in each of the groups. Twenty three (from 37) rural respondents expected to experience them up from 17 in the past. For the semi-rural group it rose only slightly from 6 (from 17) to 7 (from 16), likewise the urban group rose from only one (from 10) to three (from 11).

Land, Market Demand and Lack of Skills - Rural, Semi-rural, Urban

Land supply was only an issue for rural (4 from 38) and urban respondents in the past, proportionately more so for the urban group where four (from 10) cited land supply issues. All the groups reported expecting land supply to be an issue in the future but still in relatively small proportions for respondents from the rural (8 from 37) and semi-rural groups (2 from 16). For respondents from the urban group land supply in the future was expected to be a problem for five (from 11).

Lack of market demand in the previous three years was cited as an issue by 3 (from 38) rural respondents and four (from 10) urban respondents. None of the groups cited any expected problems with market demand in the future. This may well give weight to the findings in Chapter 2 that small developers are optimistic for levels of business in the next five years.

The relatively low numbers reporting lack of skills as an obstacle to building in the past is echoed across all three groups with 3 (from 38) of rural respondents, 2 (from 17) of semi-rural respondents and zero urban respondents. On the contrary for the future more rural and semi-rural respondents expected to experience this problem (11 from 37 and 7 from 16) and a few urban respondents (3 from 11).

Obstacles conclusion - Rural, Semi-rural and Urban

The differences between the obstacles most experienced and expected between rural, semi-rural and urban groups of respondents can be summarised as follows.

For financial issues urban respondents were proportionally more likely to say they expected to experience them in the future than rural and semi-rural respondents. Urban respondents were also less likely to have experienced or to expect to experience infrastructure issues most especially semi-rural respondents for whom almost all expected this obstacle to impeded them. Rural respondents were more likely to have experienced and to expect to experience utility delays than their counterparts delivering in semi-rural and urban areas. Market demand did not feature as an obstacle for respondents from the semi-rural group and lack of skills was less of an issue for urban respondents than for the other two groups.

B.3: Details of Obstacles - small and medium

	Last three years				Next five years
	Top three Base 51/14		Any others Base 45/14		Top three Base 50/14
Lack of development finance	21/3	52/9	14/1	52/8	16/3	41/7
Lending criteria for development finance	15/1		11/1		0/0
Lack of mortgage finance for customers	10/3		17/5		13/2
Cost of development finance	6/2		10/1		12/2
Planning (contributions too high, unable to obtain consent, delays, inconsistency and attitudes)	25/5		24/6		25/8
Infrastructure (S75) negotiations (timing)	8/3	21/3	9/2	26/9	10/3	38/10
Infrastructure (S75) blockages (delivery)	5/4		8/4		8/5
Infrastructure (S75) blockages (costs or funding)	8/0		9/3		20/2
Infrastructure (S75) issues general
Delays in provision of utilities (water, gas, electricity, broadband)	17/7		20/8		23/10
Unable to buy or obtain an option on land	7/1		6/3		0/0
Market demand for your type of work in your area low	6/1		6/2		0/0
Lack of skills	4/1		4/1		17/4
No desire to build more homes (already busy)	0/0		1/0		0/0
Shortage of materials	0/0		3/1		0/0
Others (smaller developers disproportionate costs, political turmoil, road bonds	10/7		8/1		5/3

Table B.4: Details of Obstacles - rural, semi-rural and urban respondents

	Last three years				Next five years
	Top three Base 38/17/10		Any others Base 36/15/8		Top three Base 37/16/11
Lack of development finance	13/6/5	36/13/12	9/5/1	36/16/8	10/4/5	28/10/10
Lending criteria for development finance	8/4/4		6/4/2		0/0/0
Lack of mortgage finance for customers	8/3/2		14/5/3		8/4/3
Cost of development finance	7/0/1		7/2/2		102/2
Planning (contributions too high, unable to obtain consent, delays, inconsistency and attitudes)	16/12/2		16/12/2		22/6/5
Infrastructure (S75) negotiations (timing)	9/2/0	17/11/0	6/3/2	23/9/3	7/5/1	28/15/5
Infrastructure (S75) blockages (delivery)	4/5/0		9/3/0		8/4/1
Infrastructure (S75) blockages (costs or funding)	4/4/0		8/3/1		13/6/3
Infrastructure (S75) issues general
Delays in provision of utilities (water, gas, electricity, broadband)	17/6/1		19/5/4		23/7/3
Unable to buy or obtain an option on land	4/0/4		3/3/3		8/2/5
Market demand for your type of work in your area low	4/0/3		6/1/1		0/0/0
Lack of skills	3/2/0		1/3/1		11/7/3
No desire to build more homes (already busy)	0/0/0		1/0/0		0/0/0
Shortage of materials	0/0/0		2/0/2		0/0/0
Others (smaller developers disproportionate costs, political turmoil, road bonds	8/6/3		5/2/2		3/2/3