Reaching a shared understanding of the local housing context
Within local authorities
2.33 As noted earlier in this guidance, the LHS process needs to be appropriately integrated with a number of other planning processes for which the local authority has overall responsibility and which require partnership working. A shared understanding of the local housing context should be developed within the local authority's framework for developing community planning, given the role of housing in addressing community plan objectives.
2.34 The role of community planning in co-ordinating regeneration is explained in the Scottish Executive's Community Regeneration Statement, entitled "Better Communities in Scotland - Closing the Gap", published in June 2002. This statement sets out the Executive's approach to tackling the inequalities that persist between communities in Scotland and puts importance on joining up national, regional, local and neighbourhood efforts through the strategic framework of Community Planning.
2.35 Different elements of the LHS will cut across other planning processes, so it is important that through the community planning process the understanding of the local housing context dovetails properly with the outputs of these other processes.
2.36 As housing requirements account for a high proportion of the demand for development land, it is equally important that the LHS should inform and be consistent with the statutory development plan framework. Increasingly, development plan policies may play an important role in the delivery of affordable housing.
With neighbouring local authorities
2.37 In major conurbations larger regional housing markets are likely to cut across local authority administrative boundaries as demonstrated in the HMCS. A local authority's LHS needs to reflect the existence of these larger markets. Neighbouring authorities therefore need to be involved in defining issues arising from the existence of a wider housing market. Cross-boundary working arrangements, such as regional housing forums, can assist local authorities in this way.
