Fife Housing Land Audit 2024

The main purpose of the Housing Land Audit (HLA) is to set out the housing land supply position at 1st April each year. This document provides a ‘snapshot’ of the housing land supply position as at 1st April 2024.

The Housing Land Audit is used by Fife Council to assess progress towards meeting the Housing Land Requirement; evaluate the effectiveness and take-up of housing land allocations in the Local Development Plan (LDP); and inform responses to planning applications. The Audit also assists Council decision-making in such spheres as education provision and transport planning, among others. Homes for Scotland and other interested parties such as developers, utility providers, consultants and the general public also use the Housing Land Audit.

All sites with planning permission for 4 or more units are assessed using Completion Certificate (CC) data from Building Standards and Safety. With past audits, sites were visited to gather completion data. There are differences between the method previously used and the CC method. Therefore the caveat with the completion data, to prevent any double counting, is that any CCs dated in the 2024 HLA snapshot period that have been previously counted and added into past HLA completions figures have not been added into the completion figures for 2023/2024.

Small sites, i.e., those fewer than 4 housing units, have also been assessed using Completion Certificates data from Building Standards and Safety.

Where necessary, developers and landowners currently building on, or having an interest in, a site in Fife were contacted as to their likely build programme. Where given, their comments were noted and used to inform the data contained in the Schedules.

The Housing Land Audit is a statement of the agreed and disputed housing land supply position in Fife. The supply was agreed with Homes for Scotland who consulted its members. All sites in the Housing Land Audit were scrutinised and their status and programming agreed or formally disputed.

The Housing Land Audit is a statement of the agreed housing land supply position in Fife. The Housing Land Audit 2024 provides a “snapshot” of the housing land supply position for Fife as of 1st April 2024. The supply was agreed with Homes for Scotland and its members, with two sites disputed, and also reflects the views of landowners and developers not affiliated to Homes for Scotland where these are known.

In February 2023, National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) was published and adopted by the Scottish Government. This has therefore led to modifications in the procedures and methodology of this HLA and those published in the future.

Planning Advice Note 2/2010: Affordable Housing and Housing Land (PAN 2/2010) remains the Scottish Governments planning policy guidance. The HLA conforms with its methodology and content in the context of NPF4.

NPF4, in Policy 16: Quality Homes, brought forward a Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR) which is the minimum amount of land that is to be provided in a 10-year period in each of Scotland’s Local Authorities. The MATHLR for Fife has been split by location. The total MATHLR consists of Fife North and Fife Central and South. This reflects that Fife was formerly part of two Strategic Development Plan areas and contributed to separate Housing Need and Demand Assessments.

In the next Local Development Plan, a Local Housing Land Requirement (LHLR) is to be identified. The MATHLR is expected to be exceeded in the Local Development Plan’s LHLR. The Housing Land Audit will be used to monitor and identify the housing land supply in Fife against the MATHLR.

A deliverable housing land pipeline is to be established in the LDP Delivery Programme to provide a clear view of the phasing of housing delivery and to signify when land will be brought forward. To represent when housing land will come forward, housing projections are expected over the short (1-3 years), medium (4-6 years) and long term (7-10 years). The HLA will monitor the delivery of housing land to inform the pipeline.

Since 1987, the Housing Land Audit has monitored new house building and other means of creating new housing units such as the conversion of existing non-residential buildings or the subdivision of large houses. There are three main reasons why it is useful to monitor completions:

· to monitor the delivery against the established pipeline.

· to allow assumptions to be made regarding the likely output of the deliverable housing land supply; and

· to assist in predicting future trends which may, in turn, have implications for future demand assessments.

Wholly completed sites with no remaining capacity are removed from the deliverable supply on an annual basis.

The 2023 Audit saw a change in the methodology. The definition of small sites has now changed from four units or less to three units or less. Sites with 4 or more units now contribute to the housing land supply.

Total completion rates for all tenures have varied from year to year and have not followed any specific pattern. Until 2008/2009 the overall trend had been upwards, but the effects of the recession have had a significant effect on house building. The 6 years prior to 2016/17 were the years with the fewest completions since records began in 1987. However, 2016/17 and 2017/18 showed signs of an upturn in house building in Fife with the highest number of completions since the recession. In 2020 and 2021, Scotland was in the Coronavirus Pandemic where guidance stated by the Scottish Government was to stay at home and not to undertake any non-necessary journeys and to socially distance from others. The completion figure for 2020/2021 was less than 1,000 houses for the first time since 2015/2016. In 2023/24, the completion figure has slightly decreased from 2022/23 but still has a completion figure above 1,000 houses for another year which is a similar figure of pre-pandemic figures seen in 2019.

The Housing Land Audit lists all sites included in the deliverable land supply i.e., sites with a capacity of four or more units that meet one or more of the following criteria:

· sites with a current planning consent for residential development including sites under construction;

· sites in the adopted local development plan;

· sites with agreed potential for housing development e.g., sites in an agreed development strategy such as the Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP).

The deliverable land supply does not include:

· sites which are the subject of undetermined planning applications, including those which are the subject of an uncompleted Section 75 obligation or other legal agreement, where such sites are not allocated in the Development Plan or the SHIP;

· sites granted planning permission after 31st March 2024 where such sites are not allocated in the Development Plan or the SHIP;

· sites in the SHIP which are not yet fully committed and funded; or

· sites of less than 4 units.

Once included in the Housing Land Audit, a site will remain in the deliverable land supply until:

· the site is completed;

· the site is developed for another use;

· the site capacity is reduced to less than 4 units;

· planning permission lapses or is revoked and the site is not allocated in the Development Plan or the SHIP; or

· a new local development plan is adopted, superseding the existing adopted plan, and the site is not included in the new plan.

The refusal of planning consent on a local development plan site does not exclude it from the being deliverable. It may, depending on individual circumstances, become part of the constrained supply, and will only be removed from the Housing Land Audit through the local development plan process.

The deliverable land supply is land that is free from constraints or there is a commitment to overcome constraints, and development is able to be delivered in the period identified for the site within the Deliverable Housing Land Pipeline. Neither the Housing Land Audit nor the Development Plan place any restriction on any site coming forward for development earlier than programmed although individual sites may have their annual delivery limited through a condition of the relevant planning consent in order to allow for supporting infrastructure to be delivered in a planned manner.

To represent when housing land will come forward as set out in NPF4, housing projections will be illustrated using the following:

· Short Term - 1 - 3 years (2024/25, 2025/26, 2026/27)

· Medium Term - 4 - 6 years (2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30)

· Long Term - 7 - 10 years (2030/2031, 2031/32, 2032/33, 2033/34)

Sites which have been classed as constrained are those where the land is not free from constraints and have no current commitment to overcome them, and development is unlikely to be delivered in the time period identified. These sites have no contribution to the deliverable housing land supply. These constraints, which are set out in PAN 2/2010, are ownership, physical, contamination, marketability and infrastructure.

This consideration does not prevent a site from contributing in the future if the constraints can be overcome or if circumstances change. These sites are allocated sites currently looking to overcome the current constraint and will be monitored as part of the audit and delivery pipeline with the ambition of moving into the deliverable land supply. There are currently 9,414 constrained units.

It is necessary to delete sites which are no longer available for housing development or where changes in circumstances mean that they fail to continue to meet the criteria for inclusion in the deliverable land supply. Some sites are deleted and replaced in order to reflect changing circumstances such as the site being subdivided. Such sites do not generally result in a significant overall loss of houses. A total of 334 housing units were deleted from the deliverable housing land supply in 2023/24. These units were deleted due to a variety of reasons:

• The planning applications on multiple sites had lapsed where no construction had started
• Sites were designated for uses other than for housing such as student accommodation
• Sites are being developed for housing but have less than 4 units

Wholly completed sites are those sites where all houses are present on site as of 1st April 2024. A total of 22 housing sites were marked as completed and removed from the deliverable housing land supply in 2023/24.

Each year those parties involved in the preparation of the Housing Land Audit strive to reach full agreement on the contribution of sites towards the housing supply targets. Where full agreement cannot be reached, the site is recorded as being the subject of a dispute. This year, one site has been formally disputed by Homes for Scotland. Where sites are disputed, the views of the Council are reflected in the Schedules.

The MATHLR is the minimum amount of land, by reference to the number of housing units, that is to be provided by each planning authority in Scotland for a 10 year period. The MATHLR is expected to be exceeded in the local development plans Local Housing Land Requirement. Fife has a MATHLR of 7,300. This figure has been split into Fife Central and South with a figure of 5,550 and Fife North with a figure of 1,750.

Over a 10 year period, the annual figure can be calculated for each area, with Fife Central and South having a figure of 555 housing units and Fife North having a figure of 175 housing units. The below graph shows that the 10-year programming for Fife Central and South exceeds the MATHLR. The 10-year programming for Fife North exceeds the MATHLR until 2032/33 onward.

It is assumed that some deliverable sites that have constraints with projections outwith the 10-year period could overcome the constraint and come forward earlier than programmed for. Additionally, constrained sites could come forward in the 10 year period if a constraint can be overcome.

On deliverable sites Post 2034, there are a further 1,432 units projected on sites in Fife North and 7,036 units on sites in Fife Central and South. Additionally, 1,040 units in Fife North and 8,374 units in Fife Central and South are at the time of the Audit classed as constrained. These units could potentially come forward in the 10-year period to add to the deliverable supply and assist in exceeding the MATHLR.

The following map and table shows the location of all sites in the Housing Land Audit. These are colour categorised by the site status - deliverable, constrained, deleted or completed. As the map is zoomed, the table will update with the sites that are in the map view. Alternatively, when clicking on the site in the table, the map will zoom to the site location. More information on the sites are contained in the following schedules and in the interactive map found  here .

The following schedules lists all sites contained in the Housing Land Audit 2024. If you wish to search for a particular site you can do so through the search bar and type in either the site name or site code. To export the following data, there is an option to export to CSV file from the icon in the top right hand corner of the table.