National Housing Policy
“Firm Foundations”
The change of government administration in May 2007 has brought about a number of significant policy changes in respect of housing and planning for housing. In October 2008, the Scottish Government released “Firm Foundations: The Future of Housing in Scotland” which sets out the government’s vision for housing policy in Scotland.
Assessing Housing Need and Demand
Recently issued guidance indicates that housing need and demand should be assessed on a regional basis and uses the current planning structure as a model of working for housing. This is reflected in the finalised guidance on Housing Need and Demand published in March 2008. This supersedes the previous guidance on assessing housing need, published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and brings with it clear changes to the objectives and outcomes of wider housing needs assessments.
“SPP3: Planning for Housing”
The Scottish Government has recently consulted on SPP3 Planning for Housing (draft).The policy guidance presents in detail a way for planning and housing sectors to work together more closely, as highlighted within Firm Foundations. It includes the Housing Need and Demand Guidance as an annex, and has far reaching implications for the role of the LHS in strategic planning for housing supply across all tenures.
The consultation on the draft ended on 31st March and the outcomes of this are expected to be published by the Scottish Government shortly.
Local Housing Strategy Guidance
The revised guidance on the development of LHS’ is expected to be released by the Scottish Government shortly, and will outline a much more strategic role for the LHS. It will be larger in scope than before in terms of planning for all housing tenures. It is also expected to remove the requirement to have separate Homelessness, Fuel Poverty and Housing Support (formerly Supporting People) strategies. Further detail will be made available here when this guidance is published.