Fife Employment Land Audit 2022

Employment Land is land allocated for general industrial and business/office use, storage and distribution uses, business parks and specialist technology parks including research and development uses. This comprises Classes 4 (Business), 5 (General Industrial) and 6 (Storage or Distribution) of the 1997 Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Scotland) Order. FifePlan defines Employment land as all land identified for business (Class 4) and industrial (Classes 5 and 6) uses.

Employment land sites are those sites allocated within the adopted local development plan for development of employment uses (class 4, class 5 or class 6).  They also include sites which are not designated in the local development plan for employment but have planning permission for an employment use; these are referred to as windfall sites.

This employment land audit provides the status of employment land sites in Fife as of the 1st of April of the audit year (1st April 2022) . The 2022 audit covers the period 1st of April 2021 to 31st March 2022 and is:

Monitoring 124 adopted local plan employment land sites accounting for 1047.6 hectares of land.

Monitoring 36 employment land windfall sites accounting for 11.7 hectares of land.

Total of 160 employment land sites and accounting for 1059.3 hectares of land.

Annually, each employment land site is assessed by Economic Development Officers through the audit process in order to determine its constraint category.   This assessment process considers land owner commitment (land ownership support of the allocation is required for a site to be brought forward or made available); the provision and availability of services and utilities (access, gas, electricity, water and drainage); and physical constraints (eg site levels, contamination or undermining). Each site is then categorised as:' Each site is categorised :-

 Immediately Available – land which is free from any constraint and is ready for immediate development. FELS Technical Document (2014 -2021).

Minor Constraints – land, while subject to some form of constraint, is judged to be capable of being addressed within 5 years. FELS Technical Document (2014 -2021) .

Major Constraints –land which is subject to constraint of such significance that it is considered to be unlikely to be overcome in less than 5 years. FELS Technical Document (2014 -2021).

Marketable Land - all land categorised as immediately available or minor constraints.Often referred to as the effectiveness of the supply. FELS Technical Document (2014 -2021).

The Local Development Plan (FIFEplan) allocates employment land across Fife and protects existing employment areas through the designation of safeguarded employment areas and application of Policy 5 (Employment Land and Property).

FIFEplan refers to the Fife Employment Land Strategy 2014 –2021 (FELS). FELS calculates the 7-year employment land requirements across 20 key settlements (settlements with a population of 5,000 or more as of 2014). It also details the supply categories and constraints categories of employment land.

The Scottish Government's National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), along with the FIFEplan are the substantive policy documents for the Planning Authority. As the NPF4 does not set out an employment land requirement for local authorities to fulfil and Fife's employment land requirements have not yet been reassessed , the current methodology therefore uses the requirements set out in FELS 2014-21.  

Investing in Business Premises and Infrastructure is one of the key priorities of Fife's Economic Strategy 2023-30 and the strategy commits Fife Council and its partners to developting serviced employment land sites and bringing vacant and derelict land and buildings back into productive use.

The annual Employment Land Audit monitors development of sites allocated in FIFEplan and sites with planning consent for employment use (class 4, 5 and 6). It also used to assess the status of the 7-year requirement.

The primary aim of FELS is to ensure a marketable supply (land categorised as immediately available or minor constraints) of employment land is available to meet market demand though promoting and offering a range and choice of sites. FELS aims to do this by identifying 20 key settlements across Fife and allocating a 7 year general supply requirement and an additional strategic requirement in those settlements assessed as of strategic importance - where demand is greatest.

General requirement - The 7 year land supply requirement was calculated primarily based on the average of take up at 4.5 hectares (ha) per annum multiplied by 7. This figure was augmented in St Andrews and the East Neuk where latent demand and development interest necessitated additional provision. This provided a full General Employment Land 7 Year Requirement of 33 ha. From evidence gathered, small /medium scale employers are more reliant on the need for serviced sites. Therefore in order to be responsive to business needs the general 7 year land supply must be, at least, marketable, if not immediately available in order to contribute effectively to business requirements. Full details on methodology found in the Fife Employment Land Strategy(2014 -2021).

Strategic requirement Based on take-up figures, the strategic supply requirement is 29.5ha per annum. This is calculated by deducting the general take-up figure of 4.5ha per annum from the overall projected take-up figure of 34ha per annum. In order to make provision for a 7 year land supply, this figure is then multiplied by 7 to give a Fife wide total requirement of 208 ha. At both Dalgety Bay and Burntisland, although considered to be strategic employment settlements where major employers operate and where the market has focused employment development, the primary aim is to protect the existing land supply and to support redevelopment of land for employment uses when opportunities arise. The provision in St Andrews and Cupar has been set at the levels proposed in TAYplan. Full details on methodology found in the Fife Employment Land Strategy (2014 -2021).

The 2022 Fife Employment Land Strategy traffic light table is shown below.  This shows the land requirements defined in the FELS compared with the actual amount of marketable land which is either allocated and available for development through the Local Development Plan or which has secure planning status.

It is important to note that this table only shows marketable land which is that land which is immediately available or has minor constraints, as outlined in FELS.

• GREEN – where the allocation of marketable employment land meets or exceeds the requirement defined in FELS (100% +).
• AMBER – where the allocation of marketable employment land accounts for 80 – 99% of the requirement set in FELS. These settlements have limited employment land available which needs to be augmented in terms of area and/or range of uses.
• RED – Where the allocation of marketable employment land meets less than 80% of the requirement set in FELS. These settlements have an inadequate amount of employment land available.

The following map allows you to view the 20 Key Settlements, highlighted by their FELS traffic light status. The Settlement selector on the left provides a filter and zoom function allowing you to filter by key settlement and view the sites contained in that area. The sites have been symbolised as BLUE for 'General Allocation' and Purple for 'Strategic Allocation'.

The Employment Land Audit monitors the development of sites. Note prior to the 2020 audit site visits were used to assess the status of sites. In 2022 the primary source of development information continues to be building warrants and officers knowledge of the sites.

Windfall sites which have had planning permission for employment use but which have not been developed and their planning status has lapsed have been removed from the audit. The map below allows you to see what has happened in Fife between 01/04/2021- 31/03/2022.

The following schedule lists all sites contained in the Employment Land Audit 2022. Should you require there is the ability to export to CSV file via the icon in the top right corner of the table. A map view of the data is available through the tab at the top.

If you have any questions about the content of this report please contact the Land Audits team at land.audits@fife.gov.uk or visit our   website  .