The Planning System and the Provision of Affordable Housing in Rural Britain: A Comparison of the Scottish and English Experience

This paper compares recent experience in the use of the planning system to facilitate the provision of affordable housing in rural areas of Scotland and England. Following an introduction summarising key issues arising from the relevant literature, the paper first sets out the scale of need for rural affordable housing in the two countries and then summarises the differing planning policy frameworks. Scale of delivery is then addressed and an attempt is made to establish the extent to which differences in performance reflect variations in policy, delivery mechanisms or differing housing markets. The hypothesis is advanced that Scotland, although a more rural country, has made less use of planning policy to tackle issues relating to the need for rural social housing. In both countries scale of provision has lagged behind perceived need and a major reason for this would appear to be the tensions in planning policy between environmental and social sustainability objectives, with the scales so far weighted towards the environmental rather than the social imperative.