Review of pre-recession development agreements on the cards

From 'Planning'

Scotland's chief planner is to write to local authorities to ask them to review development agreements signed before the recession in a bid to help developers restart stalled projects.

Cabinet secretary for finance and sustainable growth John Swinney said that chief planner Jim McKinnon would write to local authorities asking them to relax planning agreements that were agreed before the credit crunch.

A planning advice note from the Scottish Government indicates that, where there is a clear need, planning authorities can seek a contribution of up to 25 per cent affordable housing in new developments.

But speaking at the Scottish Property Federation (SPF) annual conference, Swinney said: "The chief planner is writing to local authorities to say the requirement for 25 per cent affordable housing should be viewed with more relaxation than is currently the case."

SPF chairman Malcolm Naish said: "The willingness to be flexible about the way policy is interpreted is an extremely welcome development and one that is essential if Scotland is to show that it is open for business".

Swinney said: "There is no point local authorities saying 'that's what we did in 2007'. 2007 development contracts in the 2011 market will just encourage stasis.

"Is that clearly understood and accepted in all local authorities in Scotland? Probably not."

Hopefully the original item from 'Planning' is here

From BPF web pages more here

From ComProp Scotland here

From Estates Gazette here

Some additional background information on the S Gov web pages here from this doc here