It has questioned the focus of official planning performance statistics, the latest of which report an average of 37 weeks being taken to decide major housing applications in the first half of 2018/19 (link opens in new tab).
Homes for Scotland director of planning Tammy Swift-Adams said: 鈥淟egislation sets a target of 16 weeks for decisions to be made on planning applications for major housing developments - proposals which have the potential to ease the housing crisis. These statistics show, but the publication doesn鈥檛 openly acknowledge, that the average time taken to make those decisions is more than double what it should be. 聽Taking 37 weeks rather than 40.3 weeks to make a decision that should take 16 weeks is not a meaningful improvement in, or measure of, planning performance.鈥�
She added: 鈥淭he Planning Bill was an opportunity to establish a more enlightened way of looking at performance. However, the existing 鈥榩enalty clause鈥�, which Scottish Ministers could use (but as yet have not) to encourage better performance, has been removed from legislation at the request of authority representatives. It hasn鈥檛 been replaced with anything new.鈥�
A 鈥榮ofter鈥� alternative set out in the first version of the Planning Bill - 聽a government-appointed planning co-ordinator - 聽could have provided a more useful and more collaborative way of working with planning authorities, paying applicants and constituent communities, she said. 鈥淭hat has been removed from the Bill too, also at the request of authority representatives. It is no wonder, then, that Scottish home builders feel there is little prospect 鈥� with or without the Planning Bill 鈥� of achieving more support for home building from across Scotland鈥檚 planning authorities.鈥�
Swift-Adams concluded: 鈥淲e need to develop a system of measurement that encourages the delivery of new housing sites on the ground, not just on paper. Planning authorities hold the key to whether the opportunities offered by Homes for Scotland members can get out of the starting blocks.鈥�
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