OUTSIDE THE BOX
Small-town Scotland is atrophying, with a loss of community, amenity and identity. Morag Bootland says it’s time for a radical rethink about how we develop our towns and villages
How thoughtless new build developments are killing Scotland's small towns and villages
Our villages are changing and not for the better. In fact it seems that many of Scotland’s villages are likely to disappear altogether (and no, I’m not referring to the village of Brigadoon in the eponymous tartan-tastic musical).
The demand for housing in Scotland has seen large developments of new-build homes spring up on the outskirts of many of Scotland’s villages, which is particularly prevalent in commuter belts. The seemingly unstoppable march of the new-builds means many small towns and villages are now basically joined onto the cities from which they were once separated by green fields.
There’s no sign of this stopping anytime soon, with the Scottish Government committed to increasing the number of new homes built in Scotland, believing that this will ‘help to achieve the country’s full potential through better employment opportunities, healthier lives and a more prosperous and fair society’. Nor is this just rhetoric: the supply of new housing in Scotland rose from 17,968 in 2016 to 18,539 in 2017.
But what effect is this having on Scotland’s small communities? Throughout the nation, sprawling new-build developments spring up on greenfield sites on the outskirts of once-pretty villages which used to consist of old stone homes with slate roofs and small high street shops serving a community of people who, over time, had formed bonds of trust.
As a young lass growing up in a small town in the Scottish Borders, I lived in a home that was rarely locked and knew better than to get up to anything other than the mildest forms of mischief as my parents were sure to hear about it from other residents or the local bobby, who knew exactly who I was. I wonder if the residents of that town, which has grown exponentially since my childhood, are still so trusting.
It’s not just the influx of people into what were once peaceful little places that is problematic. The style of houses common to virtually all of these developments – row upon row of generic, white boxes sited so close together that even in a detached property you would hear your neighbours’ snores of an evening – does little to enhance the charm of places that were once so aesthetically pleasing.
Of course, people need places to live, and as someone who chooses to live in a village I understand the appeal of being based outside an urban area. But so many of these developments ruin the rural idyll that people want to enjoy – and it doesn’t have to be this way.
Take, for instance, our struggling high streets. The reality of out-of-town retail parks and large supermarkets means the high streets of small-town Scotland, once packed with independent shops, have changed forever. Online shopping, banking and supermarket deliveries have certainly played a major part in the mass closure of local shops, cafes, restaurants and banks.
According to research compiled by PwC, Scotland’s town centres lost five retail outlets a week in 2017. In total, 290 shops closed across Scotland’s high streets in 2017. That’s a drop of almost 4.5% – the highest in Britain. Some types of shops have been hit harder than others. For example, 760 banks closed across the UK in 2017, leaving only 8,000 high street branches in the whole of the country. Compare that to around 18,000 branches in 1989 and you have an idea of just how many buildings are affected. With many former retail outlets in the centre of our towns lying fallow, these buildings should be ripe for development.
Renovating brownfield sites would aid intergration and community cohesion hugely
According to Scottish Government figures, the number of commercial buildings converted into housing in Scotland between 2016 and 2017 was just 862. Compare that with the 18,539 new homes built and the disparity is a stark one.
According to the Federation of Master Builders it is estimated that as many as 300,000 to 400,000 new homes could be created by converting empty shops and the spaces above them, with between 10-15% of them in Scotland. ‘Taking a number of case studies from town centres from right across Great Britain, our research highlights the opportunities that exist for creating new homes in a range of different building types,’ said the Federation’s chief executive Brian Berry.
Converting shops into homes is not as straightforward as throwing up another house built to the same specifications as its neighbour ad infinitum: it takes imagination and innovation from developers and contractors. Local councils also have a large part to play in making these conversions feasible.
‘It’s essential that local authorities should include proposals to make use of these empty spaces in their planning documents and also help find ways to overcome the various barriers so that we can tap into this much-needed source of additional housing supply,’ says Berry. ‘Building new homes is important, but a great deal can also be achieved through making better use of our existing buildings.’
Perhaps if limits were put on how many new-build housing developments were allowed on greenfield sites on the outskirts of towns and villages, this would encourage developers to look elsewhere and be more creative.
Rather than large, self-contained estates of houses, we should actively encourage developers to look at brownfield sites, which would allow people to live at the heart of the towns and villages that they move into, rather than in housing schemes on the fringes of existing communities. This would aid integration and community cohesion enormously, and by renovating and redeveloping existing building stock, our villages and towns would retain much more of their character.
Local councils should also look closely at the style of homes developers are permitted to build just a stone’s throw from conservation areas and places which have particular historical interest. Home owners who live in period homes must jump through hoops to make alterations to their properties and are often forced to spend large sums of money when carrying out any home improvements to ensure that they are in-keeping with the surrounding buildings.
I agree with this principal, which ensures that we preserve our built heritage, but when new buildings which jar with local architecture are erected within a few hundred metres of this heritage, yet appear not to be subject to the same regulations as their neighbours, the planning process is just not working.
Perhaps restrictions on the style of new-build homes permitted around our old towns and villages may well encourage developers to tap into the former retail market, creating quirky and imaginative homes where once there were empty shells. It’s time for town planners and developers to test their ingenuity, rather than simply continuing to build little white boxes which only destroy that village idyll which is the main selling point of their new homes.