Agenda item

Lindsay Renwick - Scottish Borders Council - Principal Officer, Housing Strategy, Policy & Development.  Link to Local Housing Strategy 2023-28 contained in additional information document.

3.1       The Chair welcomed Lindsay Renwick, Scottish Borders Council’s Principal Officer, Housing Strategy, Policy and Development to the meeting to provide a presentation on the Local Housing Strategy 2023-2028.  Ms Renwick explained that the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 placed a requirement on Local Authorities to prepare a Local Housing Strategy (LHS) every five years which set out a vision for the supply, quality and availability of housing in the region.  The Plan was not just a council plan, but a Scottish Borders Wide plan.  The LHS was the key planning document which provided a framework of action, investment and partnership-working to deliver local priorities.  It was set within the context of a number of local and national strategies.  Work had been ongoing for 18 months, but for 2 years in total.  Ms Renwick was in attendance to make the Teviot and Liddesdale community aware of the LHS and to gauge opinion.  Engagement had been underway since August 2021, and had involved an Early Engagement Survey with key stakeholders; Resident and Stakeholder workshops and surveys; work with the Gypsy and Traveller community; Key Worker surveys; and a Private Landlord survey. All of the details on engagement could be found in Appendix 3 of the full strategy.   The LHS was now out for formal consultation, and was comprised of 12 documents.  The main LHS consultation was open until 21 July 2023.   Once the consultation closed the LHS would be sent to the Scottish Government for review, and once all comments and work had been incorporated into the report it would be presented to Committee later in the year.  Ms Renwick outlined the major challenges faced by the Scottish Borders in the context of housing, which included the rural nature of the region; the labour market; low wage nature of the economy; ageing population and challenges related to commitments to reach climate change targets.  The ongoing issues of inflation and the cost of living crisis was also having an impact.

3.2       It was a requirement under the LHS to set a Housing Supply Target.  The target under the proposed LHS had been set at 353 new houses per year.  That was comprised of 141 affordable houses and 212 market houses.  The methodology, which used Housing Need and Demand Assessment as starting point, for determining the target was contained in Appendix 4 to the report.  Ms Renwick explained that the vision which underpinned the LHS was that everyone would have access to a home that met their needs as part of a sustainable community.  There were five strategic outcomes; more, well designed homes; people had access to homes which promoted independence and health; improved energy efficiency of homes and promoting a reduction in fuel poverty whilst transitioning to net zero; communities were regenerated through improving the quality and condition of housing; and homelessness was presented using a range of housing options.  Each of the priorities had between 5 and 7 key actions for delivery which were included in the draft LHS.  Ms Renwick undertook to share the slides out of the meeting.  The full LHS was available on the SBC website, paper copies of the documents were available and a questionnaire was on Citizens Space.  In response to a question regarding attendance at the workshops, Ms Renwick explained that the early part of the consultation had received in the region of 250 responses.  The stakeholder and other events across the engagement process had also been well attended.   Attendees encouraged Ms Renwick to share the slides to allow them to cascade them out via their community council networks.  In response to a question regarding a housing target of 1 set for the “South” area, Ms Renwick explained that different boundaries were used for housing purposes which did not reflect the ward make-up of the Scottish Borders Council Electoral Wards.  The Housing Supply Target had not been split by area, and the current consultation was focused on the overall number at this stage.  The Chair highlighted that the link to the LHS and other key information was included in the Additional Information Document which had been circulated with the agenda. 

DECISION

NOTED the update.