Scottish Property Federation welcomes Scottish Government’s ‘positive’ response to planning review

SCOTTISH Ministers have published their response to the report of the independent planning review panel led by Crawford Beveridge, Petra Biberbach and former Scottish Property Federation chairman John Hamilton.

Building on the work of the panel, the Scottish Government has identified 10 immediate actions including:

Extending permitted development rights – where planning permission is not needed – to more types of development. This could mean removing uncontroversial minor developments from the system, as well as using permitted development to encourage developments which support low- carbon living and digital infrastructure.

Strengthening skills and capacity and consulting on enhanced fees to ensure planning authorities are better resourced to deliver more homes.

Improving planning performance, ensuring users of the system receive a better service.

Introducing pilot simplified planning zones for housing so that planning permission is granted for housing up front, allowing developments to progress more quickly and flexibly.

Identifying how digital transformation of the planning service can be taken to another level, using tools including the web and 3D visualisations to make information about how our places will evolve over time much easier to access and understand.

The Scottish Property Federation, which contributed evidence to the planning review, has welcomed the Scottish Government’s response.

Mandy Catterall, government relations manager at the Scottish Property Federation, said: ‘ The recommendations in the report offer a strong focus on a planning service that delivers positive outcomes for communities, public leadership and securing investment.

‘ We look forward to engaging collaboratively with the Scottish Government and other stakeholders on the proposed work programmes and the development of more detailed proposals for the recommendations contained in the review.

‘Our sector is a key catalyst for jobs, investment and creating places for people to live, work and play, and we need to work together if we are to sustain the economy and investment in Scotland. The priority in Scotland must remain on growing the economy and securing investment to deliver the infrastructure our businesses and communities need. We must act swiftly to get the message around that Scotland is open for business.’