New official statistics on the quantity and location of affordable housing securing planning consent have been released today by Scotland's Chief Statistician.

The statistics show an estimated 4,767 affordable housing units were granted planning consent during the 2011/12 financial year, indicating a 28% decrease on previous period.

Data was received from every authority except Highland. The statistics record information on affordable housing securing planning consent during the 2011/12 financial year and also include summary figures back to 2007/08.

64% (3,043 units) are to be entirely publicly funded, while the remaining 36% (1,724 units) are to involve some form of contribution by a private developer.


The highest number of affordable housing units granted consent during the period were in Edinburgh (1,420 units), followed by Glasgow (626 units) then North Lanarkshire (237 units).

All consented units in Glasgow are to be entirely publicly funded, as are those in North Lanarkshire, while Edinburgh’s contribution is 50-50 publicly-funded units and units contributed by developers.

A minority of Planning Authorities have accepted commuted payments from developers for affordable housing provision, according to the figures.

£2.5m of commuted payments was agreed with developers in 2011/12, bringing the total agreed since the beginning of 2007/08 to £16.6m.

In 2011/12, nine authorities reported agreed commuted payments: Edinburgh (£853,000), Aberdeen City (£612,000), Fife (£436,000), Perth & Kinross (£200,000), Stirling (£135,000), East Lothian (£102,000), Scottish Borders (£98,000), North Lanarkshire (£55,000) and Moray (£4,000).

This is the sixth release of data from The Affordable Housing Securing Planning Consent survey, which provides new data for 2011/12.