STRUGGLING housebuilders have launched a stinging criticism of the Scottish Government after new figures revealed shocking delays to planning decisions. .
The latest performance statistics showed that decisions on major housing applications are taking an average of nearly 77 weeks – more than a year longer than the government’s own 16 week statutory timescale.
Allan Lundmark, director of planning for housebuilder’s body Homes for Scotland, said that the delays were “strangling” what little investment there was in housebuilding at a time the industry can ill afford to be hit.
He said: “It is simply not good enough for the Scottish Government to publish these figures without explaining how they are going to rectify this sorry situation.
“These figures support our own internal research and confirm that the planning system is strangling rather than facilitating what little investment is available.”
The figures, published on Friday but which did not come to the attention of the industry until yesterday, showed that the slowest planning department was in Dumfries and Galloway, which took 167 weeks to process one major planning application for housing, while the Highlands spent 160 weeks to process five applications. Edinburgh was also a top offender, with five applications being processed at an average of 120 weeks.
David Melhuish, director of the Scottish Property Federation, branded the figures as “appalling”.
He added: “The time taken to get a planning application determined is simply unacceptable and so is the length of time taken to get a planning agreement. This level of performance is putting Scotland at a material disadvantage when competing for investment and economic development.”
In March, Scottish Government planning minister Derek Mackay promised to streamline the Scottish planning system but also proposed to hike the fees developers pay to get their applications processed.
Estimates that fees would rise by more than 500 per cent to £100,000 were met with a mixed reaction from the industry, as some suggested it would be worth it to have a “fit for purpose” planning system.
But Lundmark said the poor performance figures “call into serious question the Scottish Government’s ambition in introducing higher fees for a system that is clearly not performing and shows no sign of improving”.
Mackay said yesterday: “I have repeatedly made it clear that there can be no increase in planning application fees unless there is an inextricable link to improved performance. The Scottish Government will take action on poor performance when it occurs and will investigate the reasons for lengthy delays in some cases, as now shown up by this new format of statistics. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure unnecessary delays are removed from the planning system.”
He added that the statistics, which were released in a new format, gave a “more meaningful indication of how planning authorities are doing”.