4.20 It is important that efforts to ensure the effectiveness of the brownfield housing land supply are sustained. The development of this land supply depends, to some extent, on the availability of public sector funding. Since 2000, the proportion of sites in the Effective Land Supply that require deficit funding from Communities Scotlands Grants for Rent and Ownership (GRO) and Housing Association Grant for Low Cost Home Ownership (HAG-LCHO) has declined. Nevertheless, the continued availability of funding from Communities Scotland and Scottish Enterprise Glasgows (SEG) Brownfield Sites for Housing Initiative (BSHI)remains important in the Citys regeneration.

4.21 Communities Scotland supports the construction of owneroccupied housing in emerging markets by subsidising schemes that otherwise would be uneconomic to develop. The nature of this programme means that these houses are aimed primarily at first time buyers.

4.22 Scottish Enterprise Glasgows BSHI aims to prepare sites with contamination or ground condition problems for housing development. In contrast to the area-based GRO and HAG-LCHO programmes, which generally correspond to Communities Scotland or Glasgow Alliance priority areas, BSHI is driven by funding applications for specific sites. This means that the BSHI sites are able to produce houses that are not confined to the lower market sector, provided that value-for-money criteria are met.

4.23 Analysis of the 2001 Effective Land Supply by the Council estimates that 16% of the identified capacity requires funding from one or more of these sources. Communities Scotlands replacement GRO Grant State Aid scheme has been available since November 2001, and continues to fund proposals that require assistance. Communities Scotlands view, and that of the Council, is that those sites that require GRO can be funded from anticipated budgets. The availability of funding is unlikely to be a factor, therefore, in the Councils ability to meet  the 2000 Joint Structure Plan requirements for the period 1999-2006.

4.24 At present, sites in the 2001 Established Land Supply with a capacity of almost 7,000 houses are not effective, either because of physical constraints, economic viability or problems of land assembly. Some of these sites need resources, others require new methods of bringing them forward for development. In parallel with working to secure additional funding for the Brownfield Sites for Housing Initiative, the Council will be examining new ways to increase the contribution brownfield sites make to the Effective Land Supply.

The City Council will explore innovative ways of increasing the number of brownfield housing sites within the Effective Land Supply and of stimulating development on these sites by:

establishing joint venture projects to create larger and more viable development sites;

assembling packages of sites of varying value to help deliver development on constrained sites;

using compulsory purchase powers; applying flexible policies, particularly in respect of density, to help site viability;

discounting the value of Council owned sites to reflect known development constraints;

and disposing of severely constrained Council owned sites at nil value.

4.25 During the preparation of the Joint Structure Plan, an urban capacity study was carried out to estimate the additional capacity for housing in the period 2006-2020. The outcome in Glasgow was that sites with a potential capacity for 16,000 houses were identified, with around 8,000 programmed to be delivered in each of the periods 2006-2011 and 2011-2020. Almost 50% of the total potential capacity was on sites not previously identified as housing opportunities, with around 3,500 of these programmed between 2006 and 2011, and a further 4,300 programmed after 2011. The re-use of suitable sites from this source for housing will continue to provide additional supply over the period of the Plan. Before sites identified through the urban capacity study can be considered to be part of the Effective Land Supply, they will require to be assessed in terms of the need for land remediation or deficit funding. Homes for Scotland is fully involved in the housing land audit process, and will be able to provide a view on the effectiveness of sites from this source.