Chamber and committees

Following the public consultation and Parliamentary scrutiny of Draft National Planning Framework (NPF) 4, we have been carefully considering the wealth of evidence received and intend to lay a final NPF4 in the Parliament later this Autumn.

Draft NPF4 was accompanied by a Housing Land Requirement Explanatory Report , which provides an explanation on the proposed Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement and Assessment Reports for each authority area.

When planning for housing, household trends are a more relevant indicator of current and future housing need and demand than population.

Household projections are nationally available datasets from the National Records of Scotland (NRS). Household projections are a key input to Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) as they are an indicator of future households yet to form. Household data is distinct from population data as they can be one person or a group of people living together. They therefore reflect both changes in population trends and changes in the number of people living in each household.

Local authorities, as both the statutory housing and planning authority, are responsible for assessing housing requirements.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) process seeks to use the best available data to reach robust and credible outputs.

The HNDA Tool which forms part of the assessment enables the use of quality assured recognised national datasets. The HNDA tool also provides flexibility to incorporate a variety of types of housing need where there is robust local information and evidenced policy drivers.

Any decision by a local authority to use local information should weigh the value of the data with sourcing, cleaning and inputting the data into the HNDA process bearing in mind HNDAs aim to provide a broad range of housing estimates rather than a single precision, or actual, housing estimate. The methodology used by local authorities should be included in the HNDAs allowing for transparency.

Updated guidance on the expanded criteria is being finalised and agreed with local government partners and will be published on the Scottish Government website in the coming weeks.

The following local authorities conducted some form of survey work to support their Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) and Minimum All Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR) processes:

For the HNDA -

Local authorities are required to update their HNDAs every five years. In the latest round of updates during 2021 and 2022 eight local authorities updated their HNDA and these have been appraised by the Scottish Government’s Centre for Housing Market Analysis (CHMA). Of these one, Argyll and Bute, undertook an HNDA Household Survey. South East Scotland authorities (City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, South Fife, Midlothian, West Lothian, Scottish Borders) and South Ayrshire undertook some form of local survey work to inform parts of their HNDA. All eight authorities also used some form of local data to prepare their HNDAs.

Additionally, Tayside authorities (Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross and North Fife) undertook a Primary Research Study, however, the appraisal process for this HNDA has not, as yet, been finalised.

For the MATHLR –

In total, five authorities used primary research to inform their MATHLR – Argyll and Bute and Tayside authorities (Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross and North Fife).

Draft National Planning Framework (NPF) 4 was accompanied by a Housing Lan Requirement Explanatory Report , which provides an explanation on the proposed Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR), and Assessment Reports for each authority area. Information provided by each authority to inform the MATHLR is also available online at: www.transformingplanning.scot/national-planning-framework/supporting-information-for-draft-npf4/housing/

Local authorities, as both the statutory housing and planning authority, are responsible for assessing housing requirements and set out priorities in their Local Housing Strategies.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment Tool helps local authorities to access robust, quality assured data sets and to reduce the cost and complexity for local authorities in undertaking such assessments. The Tool is designed to use recognised national datasets and also provides flexibility to incorporate a variety of types of housing need where there is robust local information and evidenced policy drivers. Local authorities are able to augment this data with a range of additional sources including primary data where they have it.

There will be some developers who are signatories to both the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord and Welsh Developers Pact. The parties to the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord will be confirmed once The Accord is signed.

The Scottish Government has asked for spending to end March 2022, end June 2022 and end September 2022. This will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course, once it has been collated and quality assured.

Local authorities or housing market partnerships are not required to procure primary data in order to meet the requirements of a Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA). The HNDA process provides flexibility to incorporate a variety of types of housing need where there is robust local information and evidenced policy drivers. It is for each local authority or housing market partnership to consider relevant sources of information and whether procuring primary data is appropriate to their circumstances.

10 November 2022

Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10687 by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022, and in

Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA) were introduced in 2008 as part of the broader Local Housing Strategy process. The process was reviewed in 2014 and updated with revised guidance and an Excel-based Tool. The Guidance and Tool are kept under review and are refreshed regularly in line with the release of updated Household Projections by National Records of Scotland.

In 2020, the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence undertook ‘An illustrative pilot of the HNDA Tool in the context of Northern Ireland’ the report from this exercise concluded that “the Scottish Government’s HNDA tool is an analytical model that is underpinned by a clear rationale. Its potential as a means to facilitate scenario planning and promote inter-organisational collaboration means its application in the context of Northern Ireland has much to commend it”.