Chamber and committees

Scottish Planning Policy (2014) sets out the Scottish Government's policy on enabling the delivery of new homes. It sets out that local authorities, through their development plans, should address the supply of land for all housing, maintaining at least a five-year supply of effective housing land at all times. Planning authorities should prepare an annual housing land audit as a tool to review and monitor the availability of effective housing land, the progress of sites through the planning process, and housing completions. This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Local authorities are not required to provide this information in their Strategic Housing Investment Plans.

During the last parliamentary term, a total of 1362 affordable homes were delivered by the Wheatley Housing Group.

I attended a meeting with the Wheatley Housing Group (WHG) on 13 July 2016. At this meeting, the Chief Executive of WHG emphasised that, despite recent changes, the WHG still has a strong credit rating and had enough liquidity to borrow significant sums in future.

While we have yet to receive final details of the financial settlement that the Scottish Government will receive from the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in 2017, we are aware of the importance of engaging with employers in Scotland in shaping our response.

Our engagement with employers has focused on developing an approach which covers a range of ways in which the use of Levy funding coming to Scotland might support our wider social and economic ambitions while protecting our current Modern Apprenticeship commitments.

Over the summer we undertook further consultation with employers and other interested parties, the terms of which were informed by the prior engagement. We received over 350 responses to this consultation which closed on 26 August 2016.

We will consider responses as swiftly to ensure arrangements are in place to use the levy as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government is commissioning research to explore options for the introduction of an infrastructure charging mechanism within Scotland. This research project will inform a white paper, which we intend to fully consult on in winter 2016.

Earlier in 2016 the Scottish Government announced the introduction of a five year Housing Infrastructure Fund, to enable the delivery of housing on strategically important sites. More information on the operation of the fund is available at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/supply-demand/housing-infrastructure-fund.

We are working with local authorities to finalise this information. Up to £50 million is available in 2016-17 for the Housing Infrastructure Fund for both loans and grant and we are working closely with local authorities as part of the Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) process to identify strategically important projects that could be supported by the fund in 2016. We have also invited local authorities, as part of their SHIP submissions, to identify projects they would wish to prioritise for consideration for funding over the five year period.

The Scottish Government does not gather data on the nature or levels of contributions secured through section 75 agreements.

Section 75 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) is a mechanism to allow local authorities to restrict or regulate development or the use of land. Section 75 agreements, otherwise known as planning obligations can be entered into by planning authorities and persons with an interest in the land.

Planning obligations have a limited but useful role to play in the planning process where they can be used to overcome obstacles to the grant of planning permission, (which could include lack of school capacity), where the tests set out in Circular 3/2012: Planning Obligations and Good Neighbour Agreements are satisfied.

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, responsibility for the provision, management and maintenance of the school estate rests with the education authorities. The Scottish Futures Trust is not responsible for the provision of or delivery of schools. The responsibility for the management of independent schools including any capital projects is a matter for individual proprietors.

The Scottish Government has committed over £3 billion of grant funding to support the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes in Scotland (35,000 for social rent), during this parliamentary session. As part of its on-going engagement with local authorities in their role as strategic housing authorities, the Scottish Government has recently held discussions to identify any areas where more support could be provided to strengthen skills and capacity on housing delivery in the short term. The Scottish Government is currently considering the outcome of these discussions and the range of support it may provide, including, where appropriate, financial assistance. Further details on this, including any financial assistance that has been identified, will be set out this autumn.