If SNP is serious about getting more affordable homes, planning rules need to be relaxed – John McLellan

As a former East Lothian councillor, new Scottish housing minister Paul McLennan was on home turf for his first official visit, to a Haddington development, where he emphasised that accelerating affordable home building remained a priority.

Scottish housing minister Paul McLennan has stressed he wants to increase the number of affordable homes being built

It will take more than the 37 social-rent properties at Letham Mains to hit a target of 110,000 new affordable homes by 2032, with Edinburgh alone around 50 per cent behind its pledge to build 18,000. The dearth means every time new student flats are proposed, campaigners get out the placards, politicians say something must be done, but the student flats get the go-ahead regardless, much to local dismay.

The problem is not the developers or the intentions of protestors, but planning restrictions which force the issue. In the case of the old Tynecastle High School site, the problem was noise from the distillery next door, because new residential developments are banned where future residents might start complaining about the din and affect the business operation.

Then there are “amenity” requirements – in other words open space – which limits the number of units in any given plot and often forces up the cost on sites which are difficult to develop. Montrose Terrace was just such a case, where a tight site was compounded by the restitution cost of land contaminated by fuel leaks from the old petrol station.

If Mr McLennan is serious about acceleration, his first job should be to loosen planning constraints which make residential developments unviable. Warm words won’t build houses.