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Planning, Architecture and Regeneration News

Planning Obligations and Good Neighbour Agreements

Circular 4/2025 on Planning Obligations and Good Neighbour Agreements was published on 12 December and revokes and replaces Circular 3/2012. The new Circular sets out how policies on planning obligations and developer contributions should be included within new-style development plans and delivery programmes. It reviews the guidance on the policy tests and clarifies how to provide clear justification for contributions addressing cumulative impacts. The guidance emphasises the importance of development viability in considering planning obligations. It also provides some advice around the development management process and the content of legal agreements.

Biodiversity guidance

On 17 December we published an update to our Biodiversity guidance. This guidance sets out how to implement policies which support the cross-cutting NPF4 outcome ‘improving biodiversity’. Most of the changes made are technical in nature, these include; the incorporation of new text on linkages between biodiversity, woodland and forestry policy, removal of outdated text, updates to references and sources and updated text on ongoing work by NatureScot to develop an adapted biodiversity metric to support delivery of NPF4 policy 3b.

Publication Declutter

The 2025 Programme for Government contained a commitment to declutter the planning system by removing all dated national planning advice. This commitment continues our aim to reduce the volume of advice, to avoid confusion and reduce complexity. On 8 December, following a short consultation we issued a blog listing the 27 Planning Advice Notes (PANs) and 19 other pieces of guidance that were being withdrawn from that day.

Consultation on increasing the threshold for applications under the Electricity Act

We have published a consultation on increasing the current threshold of 50MW for onshore electricity generating stations to be considered by local authorities.

First developer signs contract for cladding remediation

Commitment to improving safety in high-rise buildings.

Persimmon Homes is the first developer in Scotland to sign an agreement to fund and complete essential cladding work in buildings for which they are responsible.

In October, Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan invited nine developers with an average operating profit of more than £10 million to sign the Scottish Government’s Developer Remediation Contract. This aligns with similar obligations on developers elsewhere in the UK and means the process of addressing potentially unsafe cladding will move forward more quickly.

The contract commits developers to:

• Arranging safety assessments for all buildings in scope that need to be checked as quickly as possible and providing this list to Scottish Ministers within 30 days of signing the contract.
• Fixing all life critical safety problems in buildings 11 metres or taller they built or renovated in Scotland over the last 30 years to 1 June 2022
• Keeping residents informed throughout the process.

Welcoming Persimmon’s signing of the legally binding contract, Ms McAllan said:

“This is a positive step forward in making relevant buildings safer and giving residents confidence in work carried out and I would like to see the remaining developers follow Persimmon’s lead.

“By signing this contract, developers will give reassurance to the people living in these buildings that essential remediation work will progress at pace.

“Developers who sign the contract will also be required to reimburse taxpayers for funding already spent on remediating buildings they were responsible for.”