South East Scotland Regional Planning
STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN
The Strategic Development Plan prepared by SESPlan covers the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, the Scottish Borders, South Fife and West Lothian. It was approved (with modifications) by Scottish Ministers on the 27 June 2013.
The Housing Land Supplementary Guidance was formally adopted by all member authorities on 28 October 2014 and is now part of the Strategic Development Plan.
Housing Land Supplementary Guidance (PDF, 1.63 MB)
The Action Programme sets out the key strategic actions needed to achieve the vision of the approved Strategic Development Plan.
Action Programme - 2015 (PDF, 1.35MB)
A second proposed Strategic Development Plan was submitted to Scottish Ministers for examination on Monday 26 June 2017.
On the 20 July 2018, the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) completed their examination. The Report can be downloaded from the DPEA website.
On 16 May 2019, SESplan received notification that Scottish Ministers have decided to reject the Plan. The decision letter can be downloaded on the Scottish Government website.
EMERGING STRATEGIC PLANNING CONTEXT
The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 removes the need for the preparation of Strategic Development Plans. Strategic planning matters will be set out in the National Planning Framework 4 which is currently being prepared by Scottish Government. Until this time, the 2013 SDP remains the approved strategic development plan.
The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 introduces the concept of Regional Spatial Strategies. These are non-statutory documents which provide a spatial representation of the key regional land use issues requiring to be addressed across the region.
Although non-statutory in nature (they do not form part of the development plan and will not have a status in planning decisions), their purpose is to guide the development of the two parts of the National Planning Framework and Local Development Plans.
An interim Regional Spatial Strategy for Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region has been submitted to Scottish Government for consideration.
Housing need and demand assessment
It is a statutory requirement through the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 for local authorities to provide an assessment of housing need and demand and the provision of related services. The production of Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDAs) are overseen by the Scottish Government's Centre for Housing Market Analysis (CHMA) which considers whether the HNDA is 'robust and credible'.
The third Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA3) for the South East Scotland area achieved robust and credible status from CHMA on Thursday 28th July 2022. HNDA3 provides the evidence base for policy decisions in Local Housing Strategies and land allocation decisions in Local Development Plans for the local authorities in South East Scotland (City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian Council, Midlothian Council, West Lothian Council, Fife Council and Scottish Borders Council) subject to subsequent agreement of housing supply targets.
The HNDA3 final report and supplementary documents can be found below:
SES CHMA Sign Off Letter – July 2022 (PDF)
SES HNDA3 Executive Summary (PDF)
Appendix 1 SES HNDA3 HMA Assessment (PDF)
Appendix 2 SES HNDA3 Methodology Statement (PDF)
Appendix 3 SES HNDA3 Consultation Report (PDF)
Appendix 3a SES HNDA3 Consultation Feedback (PDF)
Appendix 3b SES HNDA3 Stakeholder Workshop Consultation Outcomes (PDF)
Appendix 4 SES HNDA3 Sign Off (PDF)
Appendix 5 SES HNDA3 Existing Need Model
Appendix 5a SES HNDA3 Existing Need Methodology (PDF)
Appendix 6 SES HNDA3 Affordability Assessment
Appendix 6a SES HNDA3 Affordability Methodology Statement (PDF)
Appendix 7 SES HNDA3 Scenarios & Outputs
Appendix 8 SES HNDA3 LA HNDA Tool Results
Appendix 9 SES LA Own Scenario HNDA Tool Inputs
Appendix 10 SES HNDA3 Project Team, HMP and Wider Stakeholders
For any further information on South East Scotland HNDA3, please contact: seshnda3@fife.gov.uk
