Lesley Riddoch chaired a session that can only be described as grilling for the brave panellists that represented local authorities, RSLs, the planning system and the private construction industry.

Alan Lundmark began the session by providing the developers perspective on why there is a shortage of land and called for an examination of Section 75 agreements, which in his opinion are fundamentally flawed.
He was followed by Brian Gegan, Chair of SFHA, who called for the Scottish Government to abandon the Right to Buy and suggested real investment incentives are required to enable housing provision across all types and tenures.

David Rogers said that restrictions on land supply are only part of a much wider problem. This sentiment was echoed during the question session where it was claimed that private developers consistently deliver around 2,500 homes per year in Edinburgh despite the fact that there have a far greater number of granted planning permission on sites that have been agreed as “effective” sites. It was suggested that this may be in part because private developers consider it in their best interests to “constrain” supply.

Alison Hay from COSLA urged the sector to look beyond public land to every potential land source to provide the essential housing that Scotland needs.

She revealed that there is a shortage of qualified planners working across Scotland. This combined with increasing work demands may be contributing the delays in releasing land for housing.

Allan Lundmark in response to this said that although the sites may be earmarked for development, they often face restrictions and require substantial infrastructure investment. He later admitted that private developers can not always be relied on to deliver the housing that the market needs. He conceded that the industry had failed to provide the right mix of housing at the Waterfront Development in Edinburgh.

The lively question and answer session included a number of suggestions from the audience. Including a proposal for time-limited zoning, to ensure that zoned land doesn’t get banked to benefit from rising land values.