Developer Contributions Supplementary Guidance - Status of the Guidance

New statutory guidance on developer contributions was prepared to implement City Plan 2030 policies and accord with NPF4 policy on Infrastructure First. We asked members of the public, community and business groups, developers and consultants in the build environment their views on the draft guidance. An online survey sought the views on all aspects of the guidance. Consultation took place over a 24 July to 17 September 2024.

Following the decision by the Scottish Government to not allow the adoption of the guidance as statutory guidance, a further short survey over a six week period was conducted on the intention to progress the guidance as non-statutory guidance.

Aspects of the guidance that raised responses included:

• Impact of the contributions on overall levels of viability of development
• Updates to the costs in Delivery Programmes
• Methodology used to calculate impact on education infrastructure
• Some transport interventions mitigate existing issues
• Changes to the tram contributions
• Evidence base for healthcare contributions
• Sufficient link between development and green blue and public realm projects to seek contributions

On the second survey there were concerns about the status of the guidance and calls for City Plan to be modified to allow the guidance to be subject to independent examination.

Limited changes were made as the methodologies for education and healthcare contributions were subject to scrutiny and accepted as part of the City Plan 2030 examination process. Transport interventions are proposals in City Plan 2030 and regarded as necessary to mitigate the impact of development.  

Other clarification were made to the final guidance include confirming a healthcare contribution for student accommodation and clarifying costs for sites outwith an identified zone, minor changes to the public realm contribution zone and to wording for traffic regulation orders to improve clarity.

Regarding modifications to the plan, while legislation appears to allow for this, it would come with legal risk, have an uncertain timeline and create significant impacts on resources. It was considered approving the guidance as non-statutory the best way forward.

On 10 September 2025, the Planning Committee approved the Developer Contributions and Infrastructure Delivery Guidance.   The guidance now forms non-statutory guidance and will represent a material consideration in the determination of planning applications and preparing legal agreements.