CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 12 25/06/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: HOUS­ING AND DEVELOPER OBLIG­A­TIONS SUP­PLE­MENT­ARY GUIDANCE

Pre­pared by: Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Planning

Pur­pose of Report:

To ask the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee to approve for con­sulta­tion Hous­ing and Developer Oblig­a­tions Guid­ance to sup­port the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Recom­mend­a­tion:

That the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee approve the pub­lic­a­tion of the fol­low­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance for a six week peri­od of pub­lic con­sulta­tion: a) Hous­ing b) Developer Obligations

Back­ground

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 was adop­ted by the Nation­al Park Author­ity on March 26^th 2021. The Plan states that it will be sup­por­ted by two pieces of Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance cov­er­ing Policy I: Hous­ing and Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions. The Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance is lim­ited to provid­ing fur­ther detail on the policies in the LDP and can­not intro­duce new policy require­ments not already set out in the LDP The draft Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance must under­go pub­lic con­sulta­tion pri­or to being adop­ted and the Author­ity must con­sider any timeous rep­res­ent­a­tions made to it dur­ing the con­sulta­tion period..

2. Fol­low­ing the con­sulta­tion and the incor­por­a­tion of any changes arising from it, the CNPA must sub­mit a copy of the guid­ance it wishes to adopt to Scot­tish Min­is­ters. At that time the Author­ity must also send Min­is­ters a State­ment set­ting out the pub­li­city meas­ures they have under­taken, the com­ments they received, and an explan­a­tion of how these com­ments were taken into account. After 28 days have elapsed, the Author­ity may adopt the Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance unless Scot­tish Min­is­ters have dir­ec­ted otherwise.

3. It is there­fore pro­posed that Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance on Hous­ing and Developer Con­tri­bu­tions be pub­lished for con­sulta­tion for a peri­od of six weeks:

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 12 25/06/2021

Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

1. The main focus of this guid­ance is afford­able hous­ing. The short­age of afford­able hous­ing has been iden­ti­fied as a major issue and one of the greatest chal­lenges facing the com­munit­ies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and the LDP has been pre­pared to help increase its delivery.

2. This guid­ance defines afford­able hous­ing and explains where on-site deliv­ery is required as well as where excep­tions to this might be made. It also sets out the expec­ted level of fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion that is required for smal­ler devel­op­ments (of few­er than 4 dwell­ings) and where on-site deliv­ery is not pos­sible. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Plan of 2010 intro­duced a require­ment for fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions from these small devel­op­ments (£1,250-£3,750 per unit)’ that has remained unchanged for the past ten years. At the time of imple­ment­a­tion, that approach was con­sidered bold, but in the inter­ven­ing years many plan­ning author­it­ies have intro­duced such contributions.

3. A valu­ation study has been car­ried out by the Dis­trict Valu­ation Ser­vice in order to determ­ine the appro­pri­ate com­muted sum for each Hous­ing Mar­ket Area with­in the Nation­al Park, based on the land val­ues in each area. The study is provided in Appendix 3.

4. The level of con­tri­bu­tions pro­posed are shown in Table I below. The final column has the recom­men­ded full con­tri­bu­tions rates which are very sig­ni­fic­antly great­er than those cur­rently sought. Because of this, we pro­pose a staggered intro­duc­tion start­ing at 25% of the full amount and increase by the same num­ber each year to the fourth year of the LDP. The levels may be reviewed dur­ing the Plan peri­od and should sig­ni­fic­ant change be iden­ti­fied, updated fig­ures will be pub­lished on the Nation­al Park Authority’s website.

Table I Cairngorms Nation­al Park Com­muted sum per unit

	From adop­tion to 31 Mar 2022	I Apr 2022 – 31 Mar 2023	I Apr 2023 – 31 Mar 2024	I Apr 2024 — end of Plan
Aber­deen­shire	£8,125	£16,250	£24,375	£32,500
Angus	£4,000	£8,000	£12,000	£16,000
High­land	£4,625	£9,250	£13,875	£18,500
Moray	£4,250	£8,500	£12,750	£17,000
Perth & Kinross	£7,500	£15,000	£22,500	£30,000

1. For com­par­is­on, Table 2 below shows the rates applied in the four loc­al author­ity areas around the Cairngorms Nation­al Park where con­tri­bu­tions are sought from small devel­op­ments and the rates applied in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Nation­al Park. High­land Coun­cil do not cur­rently seek afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tions from devel­op­ment of few­er than four houses in areas out­side the Nation­al Park.

¹ See https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​1​5​/​0​9​/​P​o​l​i​c​y​1​N​e​w​H​o​u​s​i​n​g​D​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​F​i​n​a​l​l.pdf

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 12 25/06/2021

Table 2 Aber­deen­shire Com­muted sum per unit

Loc­al Author­ity	Loc­a­tion	Com­muted sum (per plot)
Aber­deen­shire²	Port­leth­en, Ban­chory, Inver­urie Stone­haven Ellon, Old­meldrum, Aboyne, Alford	£48,000 £40,000
	Fraser­burgh, Tur­riff, Huntly, Ban­ff, Macduff	£27,000
Angus³	North Angus	£28,000
Moray4	All Moray	£16,000
Perth and Kinross³	High­land Perthshire	£19,000
Loch Lomond and Trossachs Nation­al Park6	Access­ible Rur­al — Loch Lomond­side Access­ible Rur­al – Stirl­ing towns and villages	£27,500 £25,000

1. A quick com­par­is­on of the tables demon­strates that the sums pro­posed for the hous­ing mar­ket areas with­in the Nation­al Park are broadly com­par­able and often lower than for neigh­bour­ing areas out­side the Nation­al Park. How­ever, the premi­um on hous­ing land with­in the Nation­al Park is appar­ent in the Nation­al Park fig­ures for Moray and Perth and Kinross. We expect that if a sim­il­ar exer­cise was under­taken for parts of High­land Coun­cil area out­side the Nation­al Park the num­bers would be sim­il­ar to those iden­ti­fied for the High­land Coun­cil area with­in the Nation­al Park.

2. All sites and pro­jects will dif­fer in terms of their con­text, char­ac­ter­ist­ics and the deliv­ery meth­ods for afford­able hous­ing. In some cases, abnor­mal costs may jus­ti­fy flex­ib­il­ity or exemp­tion from the % of afford­able hous­ing require­ments, both in terms of on-site deliv­ery and com­muted sums. Policy I also con­tains a clause on viab­il­ity and fur­ther inform­a­tion on how this is con­sidered is provided in the Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance. It should how­ever be noted that the cost of the land is not accep­ted as a val­id reason.

3. The guid­ance also sets out cri­ter­ia for when single dwell­ings will be exempt from mak­ing a pay­ment, either par­tially or in full. The viab­il­ity of the devel­op­ment is always a con­sid­er­a­tion, how­ever in addi­tion to this single dwell­ings may be exempt accord­ing to their bench­mark value and their need to access the Scot­tish Government’s Self Build Loan Fund.

² See https://aberdeenshire.gov.uk/media/20027/1‑affordable-housing.pdf

³ See https://​www​.angus​.gov​.uk/​h​o​u​s​i​n​g​/​i​n​f​o​r​m​a​t​i​o​n​_​f​o​r​_​d​e​v​e​l​o​p​e​r​s​/​c​o​m​m​u​t​e​d​_sums

4 See http://​www​.moray​.gov​.uk/​m​o​r​a​y​_​s​t​a​n​d​a​r​d​/​p​a​g​e​_​9​4​6​6​5​.html

5 See https://​www​.pkc​.gov​.uk/​m​e​d​i​a​/​4​6​2​9​8​/​D​e​v​e​l​o​p​e​r​-​C​o​n​t​r​i​b​u​t​i​o​n​s​-​A​f​f​o​r​d​a​b​l​e​-​H​o​u​s​i​n​g​-​S​G​-​a​d​o​pted- 2020/pdf/DC_AH_SG_July_2020_Mastercopy.pdf?m=637332528707030000

6 See http://www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/SG-Housing-2017-adopted‑1.pdf

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 12 25/06/2021

1. The Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance is also provided on house build­ing in set­tle­ments, in the coun­tryside and in rur­al groups. It also provides guid­ance on alter­a­tions, con­ver­sions, replace­ment houses and hous­ing pro­vi­sion for gypsies, trav­el­ers and trav­el­ling show people.

Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

1. This Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance provides addi­tion­al inform­a­tion to sup­port Policy 11 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, which provides the frame­work for developer con­tri­bu­tions that may be secured by leg­al obligations.

2. New devel­op­ment can give rise to impacts on exist­ing infra­struc­ture or ser­vices or a need for new infra­struc­ture and ser­vices for the people who will use the devel­op­ment. For example, infra­struc­ture may include roads and foot­paths, and facil­it­ies may include schools and health centres. Depend­ing on the scale and loc­a­tion of new devel­op­ment, the neces­sary infra­struc­ture and facil­it­ies may already exist in the sur­round­ing area and have with suf­fi­cient capa­city. How­ever, where they do not exist or are already near capa­city, then developer con­tri­bu­tions are likely to be required.

3. The guid­ance provides addi­tion­al inform­a­tion on: a) The types of devel­op­ments that may require con­tri­bu­tions, b) The level of con­tri­bu­tions required, c) Edu­ca­tion con­tri­bu­tions, d) Health­care con­tri­bu­tions, e) Com­munity and leis­ure facil­it­ies con­tri­bu­tions, f) Trans­port and related infra­struc­ture con­tri­bu­tions, g) Viab­il­ity, and h) How con­tri­bu­tions are calculated.

Next Steps

1. It is pro­posed that the Draft Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance be pub­lished for a six week peri­od of pub­lic con­sulta­tion, which is expec­ted to com­mence in May 2020. The con­sulta­tion will be pub­li­cised on the CNPA’s web­site and social media platforms.

2. All con­sulta­tion com­ments will be sum­mar­ised and used to inform the final Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance. The con­sulta­tion com­ments and a pro­posed final Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance will be repor­ted back to the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee who will be asked to agree to sub­mit the guid­ance as mod­i­fied to Scot­tish Ministers.

3. Along with the Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance, the Author­ity will also send Min­is­ters a State­ment set­ting out the pub­li­city meas­ures we under­took, the com­ments we received, and an explan­a­tion of how these com­ments were taken into account.

4. Giv­en that the prin­ciple of the Policies has already have been estab­lished, scru­tiny by Scot­tish Min­is­ters is likely to focus more on ensur­ing that the prin­ciples of good pub­lic involve­ment and a prop­er con­nec­tion with the LDP have been achieved con­sist­ently, rather than on detailed policy con­tent. How­ever, Min­is­ters will not wish to allow

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 12 25/06/2021

sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance to be adop­ted which they con­sider to be sig­ni­fic­antly con­trary to Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy.

1. After 28 days have elapsed, the Author­ity may adopt the Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance unless Scot­tish Min­is­ters have dir­ec­ted otherwise.

2. Once adop­ted, the guid­ance will sup­port the imple­ment­a­tion of the LDP and will be a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion for the future plan­ning applications

Dan Har­ris Gav­in Miles May 2021

danharris@​cairngorms.​co.​uk gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Appen­dices:

1. Draft Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
2. Draft Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
3. Valu­ation Report for Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity: Afford­able Hous­ing Land Valu­ations and Com­muted Sum Payments