New housing in councils: FOI release

Information requested

From the monies allocated for new housing by the Scottish Government to councils for 2018-19, how many houses have each council built?

Has any funding been drawn back unspent? If so please show by Council.

Response

To answer your questions in turn:

1. We have taken your question to relate to the published Resource Planning Assumptions for Local Authorities. The following table shows the number of affordable homes delivered by Registered Social Landlords and their subsidiaries, Local Authorities and private developers during the period 1 April 2018 to 31 December 2018, broken down by local authority area. Please note that as well as new build homes, the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) also includes rehabilitation projects and off-the-shelf purchases.

We have provided how many affordable homes have been delivered to 31 December 2018, as this reflects the currently published housing statistics.

An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies as figures for the full year 2018-19 will be included in the next Quarterly Housing Statistics publication, planned to be released on 11 June 2019 which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this routinely published information before the planned publication date.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned.

Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP)

Completions 2018-19 – to end December 2018
Council Area	Number of completions
Aberdeen (City of)	232
Aberdeenshire	155
Angus	58
Argyll & Bute	62
Clackmannanshire	31
Dumfries & Galloway	59
Dundee (City of)	112
East Ayrshire	46
East Dunbartonshire	8
East Lothian	89
East Renfrewshire	8
Edinburgh (City of)	454
Falkirk	35
Fife	168
Glasgow	430
Highland	453
Inverclyde	44
Midlothian	101
Moray	32
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	7
North Ayrshire	190
North Lanarkshire	193
Orkney Islands	28
Perth & Kinross	102
Renfrewshire	127
Scottish Borders	153
Shetland Islands	16
South Ayrshire	0
South Lanarkshire	108
Stirling	47
West Dunbartonshire	84
West Lothian	338
TOTAL	3970

2. The following table shows the provisional outturn expenditure for 2018-19. Please note this is programme management information and as such, the figures are provisional until our Outturn Report in respect of 2018-19 is published later on in the year:

Council area	Provisional Outturn expenditure 2018-19 (£m)
Aberdeen (City of)	29.434
Aberdeenshire	16.863
Angus	8.649
Argyll & Bute	11.978
Clackmannanshire	5.564
Dumfries & Galloway	15.599
Dundee (City of)	20.247
East Ayrshire	11.832
East Dunbartonshire	9.734
East Lothian	11.854
East Renfrewshire	3.565
Edinburgh (City of)	51.200
Falkirk	6.872
Fife	32.129
Glasgow (City of)	94.066
Highland	38.531
Inverclyde	15.028
Midlothian	12.495
Moray	6.195
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	4.721
North Ayrshire	15.630
North Lanarkshire	27.288
Orkney Islands	0.418
Perth & Kinross	17.205
Renfrewshire	13.899
Scottish Borders	11.766
Shetland Islands	3.410
South Ayrshire	9.841
South Lanarkshire	33.430
Stirling	4.261
West Dunbartonshire	10.012
West Lothian	11.145
TOTAL	564.861

It is important to stress that there is very little correlation with the number of units completed, and the expenditure incurred, within one particular financial year. This is because expenditure incurred in projects often straddles two financial years, and sometimes longer. This relates to the length of time it takes from the acquisition of a site for development, through the process of starting on site and then completing the construction of the housing project.

Funds were not returned by councils or registered social landlords as unspent at the end of the financial year as money is not paid out in advance of need. Funds are only paid when an activity is complete, and upon receipt of back up certification/invoices.

Where slippage occurred in local programmes that could not be absorbed by strategic housing investment priorities within a council area within one financial year, the Scottish Government reallocated these resources to other areas.

Where possible, the Scottish Government will seek to manage resources across local authority areas and future years to ensure alignment with Resource Planning Assumptions over the long term. However, no guarantee can be given that funding will be increased in future years to compensate for any previous reallocation of funds.

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