SURF Regeneration Bulletin for SFHA members: Quarter 4 2021

Introduction

Each quarter, SURF – Scotland’s Regeneration Forum highlights the latest developments on policy and practice in place-based regeneration in Scotland for the interest of SFHA Members. Given the interconnectedness of housing and regeneration, SURF hopes these bulletins will add value to SFHA Members’ wider role activities.

SURF is a charity and membership body that brings together more than 300 cross-sector organisations that are concerned about the regeneration of Scotland’s poorer places. SURF acts as a constructive channel for information, consultation and policy proposals, based on the knowledge and experience of its diverse membership.

SURF and the SFHA frequently work together on shared interests, and all SFHA Members receive free SURF membership from our partnership agreement. SURF greatly values SFHA Members’ contributions to our work programme, which includes seminars, conferences, research programmes, study visits, policy campaigning, annual awards for best practice, and the distribution of comment and information.

Programme for Government

August and September was a busy period for regeneration policy, with a swathe of actions and commitments outlined in the Shared Policy Programme, agreed between the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party for the current term of Parliament, and the 2021-22 Programme for Government.

Both publications elaborate on Scottish Government plans to support improved outcomes in place-based regeneration, with a prominent emphasis on increasing collaboration in general, and responding to the COVID-19 context for local economies, the climate emergency, and demographic trends. Key SURF network policy priorities around land use, transport, green jobs and retrofitting investments, highlighted in our 2021 Manifesto for Community Regeneration, are addressed to some extent.

SURF has identified a set of key Programme for Government commitments with particular relevance to place-based regeneration. These include plans for the £325m Place Based Investment Programme, the Fourth National Planning Framework, a Community Wealth Building Bill, and a new Land Reform Bill. A brief rundown of these commitments is available on our website.

We have also cross-referenced the ten “bold and practical” policy recommendations proposed by SURF in our 2021 Manifesto with policy statements in the Shared Policy Programme and Programme for Government. We are encouraged that several recommendations, including “scale up retrofitting”, “grow green jobs for young people” and “reverse the decline in bus services”, are reflected in the various policy commitments. Our analysis has details on what is happening – and what isn’t – around each of SURF’s recommendations.

New Place-Based Initiatives

Two new initiatives will provide dedicated additional support to selected places across Scotland on the respective themes of health & wellbeing, and climate change.

The Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme, managed by Public Health Scotland in partnership with the Improvement Service, will operate in four communities in Alloa, Ayr, Dunoon and Clydebank. This initiative will focus on improving wellbeing and reducing inequalities, with local project teams taking responsibility for delivering improved outcomes through targeted, partnership-focused activity. The programme will also establish a wider network to share learning across other geographies.

In addition, Architecture and Design Scotland are taking responsibility of establishing a network of Climate Action Towns, a commitment that featured in the Programme for Government. The agency will work with a set of small towns in support of collective action that respond to the anticipated impacts of climate change through mitigation, adaptation and behaviour change. The participating towns will be announced later this Autumn.

Both initiatives are informed by the Place Principle and the 20 Minute Neighbourhood approach. Meanwhile, the 2021 report Working Better Together in Place highlights shared learning outcomes from five other place-based initiatives, including SURF’s Alliance for Action and Corra’s Getting Alongside Communities.

Our Place

SURF has been working with the Scottish Government on a new website called ‘Our Place’. The website is described in the Programme for Government as providing: “…information, tools and resources to help support the development of places and services that improve our health, prosperity, and quality of life, and protect our environment.”

The website is produced in partnership between various Scottish Government departments, Architecture and Design Scotland, Public Health Scotland and the Improvement Service, and will be launched in the coming weeks. It is designed to be a central hub for all organisations that are keen to progress their place-based aspirations, and to support the operationalisation of the Place Principle, which calls for greater collaboration across the board in regeneration.

‘Our Place’ will provide case studies, signposts to funding streams and toolkits, regular news and events, an overview of relevant policies, and a ‘Place Based Framework’ intended to support alignment across sectors, activities and programmes.

Review of Land and Housing

The Scottish Land Commission has completed a two-year review into the land market for housing in Scotland. Informed by case studies in Scotland and Europe, the review has published six research papers and a recommendations report.

The review highlights concerns around transparency of who owns and controls land intended for housing development, and concludes that Scotland should develop a new model in which the public sector takes a leading role in the housing land market to create places people want to live at prices they can afford. 

The Commission has proposed practical development of the model through five key recommendations, including creation of a new public land agency, establishment of a recyclable fund, and designation of Regeneration Partnership Zones to speed up redevelopment of land in fragmented ownership.

Housing and Regeneration Award Shortlist

Three shortlisted initiatives in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries & Galloway and the Highlands are competing in the ‘Housing and Regeneration’ category of the 2021 SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration. The independently judged SURF Awards, supported by the Scottish Government, recognise impact and achievement in community regeneration across the country.

The Housing and Regeneration category, which is delivered in partnership with the SFHA, recognises and promotes the achievements of all housing providers in ensuring that their investments are planned and delivered in a way which produces substantial, lasting benefits to resident communities and the shared aims of wider regeneration partners. The shortlisted developments are:

Former School in Abergeldie Road, Ballater – developed by Grampian Housing Association, this refurbishment brought a much-loved old building back into use as 24 properties, a mix of affordable flats and family homes in an area with high housing demand.

The Old Police Station, Langholm – the Eskdale Foundation and South of Scotland Community Housing worked in partnership to appraise, plan and deliver the repurposing and redevelopment of the B-listed building, redundant and disused for 15 years, into four community-led affordable homes.

‘Step Up - Step Down’ at the Telford Centre, Fort Augustus – six highly flexible and adaptable self-contained bungalows were built within the grounds of the Telford Centre care home, creating a cluster more easily serviced by visiting carers, and close enough for residents to seek support whilst maintaining independence in their own home.

The category winner will be announced by Tom Arthur, Scottish Government Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, at a presentation event in December, and all three initiatives will be showcased in various SURF activities in 2022. Further information on the SURF Awards shortlist and presentation event are available on the SURF website.

20 Minute Neighbourhoods

SURF is managing a 20 Minute Neighbourhood Practice Network, which brings more than 150 place-based regeneration practitioners from all sectors together to explore practical implementation of policy aspirations. In the latest September meeting, senior representatives of the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) and Public Health Scotland (PHS) initiated discussions on the practical opportunities for creating more Scottish places in which residents can meet almost of their essential needs within a 20 minute walk from home.

Diarmaid Lawlor of SFT argued that policy-makers and practitioners are too fixated on the ‘20 minutes’ aspect of the concept, and should instead be thinking about how we can all do more to support communities to ‘live well locally’. He drew attention to the potential value of the  Infrastructure Investment Plan and the forthcoming National Planning Framework 4. John Howie of PHS highlighted the latest iteration of the Place Standard Tool and its role in helping to support practical application of the concept. He said much of its value lay in and its ability to capture information on perceived quality of place in a way that other data analysis would typically miss or underplay. A recording of the presentations and discussion is available here.

The Practice Network is free to join and includes regular meetings, learning reports and national conferences. SFHA Members willing to get involved in SURF’s initiative are warmly invited to sign up. The summer 2021 edition of SURF’s online journal is also showcasing different views, perspectives and knowledge on 20 Minute Neighbourhoods.

Local Place Plans

The Scottish Government has published an in independent analysis of responses towards proposed regulations on Local Place Plans, which were introduced as a provision of the Planning (Scotland) Act of 2019. Local Place Plans are community led plans that set out proposals for the development and use of land to support longer-term aspirations, and the proposed regulations outline how they might operate in practice.

The consultation process ran from March to June. SURF was one of 140 organisational respondents, and in our submission, we shared SURF network concerns around the provision of adequate resources to enable the development of robust Local Place Plans, and suggested two options for a minimum requirement on seeking the views of local people.

The independent analysis of responses summarises the issues raised, and notes a consensus in a number of areas, including requirements for a Local Place Plan to include a boundary map and a summary of the community’s proposals, and for community groups to take Locality Plans into account when preparing Local Place Plans. The analysis also highlights several challenges around integration between community led planning and the rest of the spatial planning system, and the extensive resources required for effective community engagement.

Get Involved

SFHA Members can participate in a number of SURF activities, including:

Learn about the 2021 SURF Awards shortlist and join us at the 9 December presentation event in Glasgow.

Join our free 20 Minute Neighbourhood Practice Network.

Visit our YouTube channel for coverage of our recent events, including our August 2021 Annual Conference series on ‘Partners in Place’.

Read our online journal, exploring the creation of more 20 Minute Neighbourhoods in Scotland.

SFHA Members that would like to learn more about the benefits of their free organisational SURF membership can contact SURF Events, Information and Communications Manager Emma Scott – emma@surf.scot.

Any SFHA Members with queries or comments on the content of this briefing are welcome to contact SURF’s Policy Manager, Derek Rankine – derek@surf.scot.  

SURF website: www.surf.scot/