The Scottish Property Federation (SPF), the voice of the Scottish property industry, has called for a radical reset and new partnership approach with the Scottish Government ahead of next year’s crucial elections to the Scottish Parliament.
The call forms part of the SPF’s Building a Better Scotland Manifesto, designed to enhance Scotland’s success in housing its people, supporting its businesses, and attracting global recognition.
Central to this is a new partnership approach between the property sector and the Scottish Government to address Scotland’s housing, employment and economic challenges.
This follows a recent turbulent political and economic climate for the property sector in Scotland, which has seen billions of pounds of investment delayed and new development schemes paused.
While the passing of the Housing (Scotland) Bill has come as a result of improved engagement, and significantly improved sentiment, Building a Better Scotland has been drafted to build on this relationship between the sector and government.
The manifesto is based upon three overarching themes designed to growth the Scottish economy and improve lives. These are:
Recognising Development Viability: Adopt a clear national framework for assessing development viability, ensuring that essential homes, workplaces, and community spaces are not stalled by inconsistent application of regulation, by:
- Adopting a national viability methodology aligned with industry standards.
- Recognising economically sustainable profit levels in policy
- Embedding viability testing early in the planning process
Urban Centre Regeneration: Support housing-led urban regeneration through stronger incentives, modernised tools, and place-based renewal, by:
- Prioritising the conversion of vacant stock into viable uses
- Expanding financial mechanisms like the Business Premises Renovation Allowance (BPRA)
- Integrating active travel and green spaces into renewal efforts
Planning, Tax and Regulatory Reset: Reset planning, tax and regulatory policy to streamline delivery, unlock land, and attract long-term investment, by:
- Ensuring cross-agency collaboration to reduce delays in development
- Review the National Planning Framework 4 within the first 100 days of the next government
- Rationalising the tax environment to incentivize development
In addition, Building a Better Scotland also calls for specific action to deal with:
- Scotland’s housing crisis by treating housing as strategic national infrastructure, supported by long-term certainty, financing reform, specialist housing, and city centre regeneration to deliver 25,000 new homes per year.
- The requirement for new employment space by enabling speculative development, regenerating obsolete stock, and expanding next-generation facilities in life sciences, digital infrastructure and the knowledge economy.
- The need to improve destinations by utilising changing consumer trends and global demand by improving access, incentivising investment, and reforming regulation to support destinations and events
Commenting, Jonathan Guthrie, Chair, Scottish Property Federation, said:
“Scotland stands at a pivotal moment. A national housing emergency has been declared, economic headwinds are testing development viability, and our towns, cities and communities are under pressure to adapt to new ways of living and working. With so much to be done, we need to adopt a much closer working relationship, between and within, the public and private sectors. This manifesto sets how a new partnership between the next Scottish Government and the property sector can ensure that the years ahead are marked by long-term certainty, forward looking policy, and investment confidence to build a better Scotland.”