Local Housing Strategies Guidance

Wider Priorities and Links with Other Plans and Strategies

This assessment criteria looked at wider priorities and links with other plans and strategies.  National priorities such as homelessness, fuel poverty, social justice etc, should have been identified and the LHS should have shown clear links to other local plans in terms of planning processes, common priorities and identifying the contribution that the LHS can make to other plans and strategies.  Were these links clearly summarised and illustrated?  The assessment considered if key messages and priorities from the HMCS had been taken into account.  The strategy should have contained a clear statement on the Council’s stock and its plans for future investment and ownership.  There should have been plans for review of council services.  Delivery of Economic Development Plans should also have been recognised in the LHS and taken into account.

Strengths

In general, those LHS which were assessed as having dealt with this criteria well have shown clear links with Fuel Poverty Strategies, Homelessness Strategies, Supporting People and Regeneration Strategies, in terms of planning processes, common priorities and identifying the contribution that the LHS can make to other strategies and vice versa.

Weaknesses

However, the issues which the assessment process identified as being weaker typically included no clear links with SIPs in terms of common priorities and identifying the contribution the LHS can make.  There was a lack of evidence of plans being in place to review council services and delivery and LHS implications of local Economic Development Plans were not recognised or taken into account sufficiently.

Examples of Good Practice

Examples of good practice for how Wider Priorities and Links with Other Plans and Strategies were dealt with can be found in the following LHS.  For further information on these you should contact the Councils directly:

Argyll and Bute Council

South Lanarkshire Council

Orkney Islands Council

The overall gradings achieved from the assessment of the Wider Priorities and Links with Other Plans and Strategies critical area were as follows: