Employment land in Scotland - is it fit for purpose?

The planning system in Scotland is plan-led and the function of development planning is to manage the development and use of land in the long-term public interest. Development plans set out how places will change over time including where new workplaces should be built.

The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 was amended most recently by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 which brought changes to what constitutes the statutory development plan. The statutory development plan now comprises the National Planning Framework (NPF) which covers all of the country, and the local development plan (LDP) which covers the specific local planning authority area. NPF4 was adopted in February 2023 and now forms part of the statutory development plan. Planning authorities are required by law to prepare an LDP for all parts of their district. The 2019 Act changed from 5 years to 10 years the intervals at which LDPs are to be prepared, required that LDPs take into account the NPF in their plan making and introduced a new Evidence Gathering stage that culminates in a Gatecheck of the evidence report before proceeding to the Plan Preparation stage. Scottish Government envisages that new style LDPs will be in place in all local planning authority areas within 5 years of the adoption of NPF4.

As a result, it is an opportune time to consider the extent to which Scottish authorities – and the wider planning system – are ensuring that local economies are best positioned to capture future growth opportunities. This is critical to ensuring that the new round of LDPs act as a platform for economic prosperity over the next 10 years.