News article 15/04/2013

(Issued 15 April 2013) 
 

Homes for Scotland today called on the Scottish Government to ease the regulatory burden that threatens to place Scotland at significant economic disadvantage to England and intensify the country’s housing crisis.

The worrying prediction was made by trade body Homes for Scotland as it submitted its response¹ to a consultation currently being conducted by the Scottish Government² which could add up to £10,000 on to the cost of building a home³.

Chief Executive Philip Hogg said:

“At a time when Westminster is slashing the costs of business in England through its ‘one in, two out’ rule which specifies that every new regulation imposing a new financial burden on firms must be offset by reductions in red tape that will save double the amount, home builders in Scotland are facing increased costs and bureaucracy.

“The current proposals on energy standards to which we are today responding are a significant case in point. The additional cost burden is not reflected in house price valuations and therefore threatens to completely cripple new housing supply as well as risk the very existence of some companies.

“Whilst we share the Scottish Government’s vision that the people of Scotland should have a constitutional right to a home, we believe the imposition of more red tape and increased costs in relation to housing delivery are at odds with this objective when we already have 160,000 people on waiting lists⁴ and output has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 70 years⁵.

“Scotland simply cannot afford to be viewed as a more costly or bureaucratic place in which to either live or do business. Our fear is that, in this instance, the climate change agenda is being pushed through in these difficult times for an ultimately negligible benefit⁶ which justifies neither the cost or wider risk to much needed homes and vital jobs.”

Notes:

1. Homes for Scotland’s full response to the consultation on “Lower carbon buildings - a review of energy standards and guidance within Scottish building regulations” can be found here.
 
2. The Scottish Government consultation can be found here.
 
3. Scottish Government:  “Report on assessment of the impact of potential improvements to energy standards for new domestic buildings within building regulations” (June 2012)

4. Shelter Scotland website

5. Housing Statistics for Scotland – all sector new build

6.    Extrapolated from the Scottish Government’s “Low Carbon Scotland:  Meeting the Emissions Reductions Targets 2010-2022” (June 2011) showing a contribution of only 0.07% from new build housing as per current energy standard proposals to the Scottish Government’s overall climate change targets.