Housing Land Audit 2023

The Housing Land Audit (HLA) is an assessment of available housing land, completions and estimated programming that is made on an annual basis.

The audit has been undertaken in compliance with  Scottish Government Planning Advice Note 2/2010 .  The audit has been carried out in consultation with known developers, infrastructure providers, agents, landowners, Homes for Scotland and West Lothian Council colleagues in education, estates and housing.  The council offers its thanks to all parties who have taken time to comment on the audit.  It is hoped that through thorough consultation the forecasting is as realistic and accurate as possible.

The audit provides an assessment of sites with agreed residential potential for 4 or more units.  This includes:

·         Sites that benefit from planning consent.

·         Sites allocated for housing, or a mixed-use development that contains a residential element in the  Local Development Plan .

·         Unplanned contribution to the housing land supply, known as a ‘windfall’ site once it has the benefit of a planning consent.

To be classed as ‘effective’ they must be free of constraints.  This means sites are expected to come forward for delivery.  PAN 2/2010 sets out the basis for such constraints – ownership; physical; contamination; deficit funding; marketability; infrastructure and land use.

Sites with a known constraint and are not expected to come forward for delivery are categorised as ‘non-effective’.  They still form part of the ‘established land supply’ and it is hoped a resolution can be found to remove the constraints.

The vast majority of the audit has been agreed with Homes for Scotland.  However, there are 4 sites that are disputed.  These are highlighted in yellow in the audit.  These are as follows:

Homes for Scotland dispute the inclusion of this site as effective as there is no planning consent and a planning application was refused Jan 2024. There is no consent now or at the base date. The planning application received objections from SEPA, transport and flooding. The site is constrained.

The council’s position is that no consent is not a constraint as per PAN 2/2010.  There are many sites without planning consent in the effective housing land supply that are undisputed.  The application was refused due to the lack of detail submitted rather than an identified constraint that prevent residential development.  The site is part of a wider site that is currently under construction.

Homes for Scotland dispute the inclusion of this site as effective because there is an education constraint, it has not been marketed and there are viability issues. 

The owner of the site (West Lothian Council) confirms Kirkton (North) and West Calder High School are both deliverable and in the capital receipts programme for disposal during the 2024/25 financial year. Preparatory work (title checks, coal reports etc.) are underway to ready both sites for marketing.  An education contribution would be required, as per the majority of developments in West Lothian, the council does not view that this would render a greenfield site in Livingston unviable and there are currently many examples of housing delivery in Livingston that include an education contribution.

Homes for Scotland dispute the inclusion of this site in the audit as the planning consent lapsed pre-base date (31st March 2023). The council's view is that planning application 0203/FUL/23 was granted on 4/12/23 which has renewed the original planning permission 0528/FUL/17 and therefore a live planning consent exists.

Homes for Scotland dispute the inclusion of this site in the Housing Land Audit as the planning consent lapsed pre-base date (31st March 2023).  The council's view is that the planning consent has been implemented with the construction of the access road and one of the five houses complete.  A further reserved matters planning application for another plot has been submitted and is currently under consideration.