Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group

Six-fold Classification

The Scottish Government noted that using the six-fold classification and applying the remote benchmark to all remote rural areas (category 6) would mean, for example, that a project in Muir of Ord (20 minutes by road from Inverness) and a project in Inverkeithing would attract the same ‘remote rural’ benchmark as a project in Islay whilst some remote small towns (category 5) would be excluded.  This would mean, for example, that a development in Dingwall would be treated in the same way as a development in Kirkwall despite these locations facing significantly different delivery challenges as they would have the ‘other rural’ benchmark applied.  It would also meant that area such as East Calder and Gartcosh were considered rural in the same way as Newmachar and Elgin.

These anomalies can be seen across most of the non-urban six-fold classification categories, with the examples below illustrating the range of different locations within a single classification category: