The Scottish Budget for the 2024-25 budgets for housing and planning was passed at Holyrood yesterday afternoon, confirming a 43% cut.
Dr Caroline Brown, Director of Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Scotland, said: “Cuts agreed yesterday to the Scottish social housing budget signify a significant setback with tangible consequences for communities across the nation.
“Central government funding is crucial for the delivery of new housing. The Scottish Government's ambitious housebuilding goals are already lagging behind, and these cuts will exacerbate the situation, placing additional pressure on Scotland’s already overworked and overstretched local planning authorities.
“This budget cut will have a tangible impact on housing delivery across Scotland, and create further tensions in local authority budgets. Our research has found that the budget for planning services has already been slashed by 38% between 2010 and 2022 and a quarter of planning department staff was cut between 2009 and 2022. At the same time, new duties and responsibilities are falling on planning authorities, requiring them to do more with less.”
