"...Councils find it tough to get development going at employment sites

Apparently, according to a new study report by 'NLP',  ...three-quarters of councils in England and Wales have allocated employment sites that have not seen development in more than a decade.  


Planning Magazine covers this in more detail here and notes that:


'NLP, which received responses from 90 councils in a survey carried out for the report, said the study was drawn up in response to government initiatives to boost jobs and growth, such as the introduction of enterprise zones and the coalition's Plan for Growth to encourage private sector investment.'



The article includes a list of 'Employment site blocks'  -as per the  ''Percentage of councils citing the following as factors deterring development'' .  Top of the list of deterrents seems to be 


Different use aspirations for the site by owners'  - 69% 


Followed by:


High developer risk for speculative development - 63% 



High cost of providing site infrastructure - 59% 


The article notes that the planning system does not seem to be a significant barrier.


There is no breakdown in the article re the aspect of landowner aspiration.


I wonder what the situation is in Scotland?