Falkirk Council announces plans to build more than 6,000 new homes within a decade

Falkirk will see more than 6,000 new homes built over ten years if a new local development plan becomes reality – although house builders want to see at least five times that amount.

Members of Falkirk Council have heard that the local authority is required by the Scottish Government to identify land for at least 5,250 new homes to be built over the next decade.

However, council bosses say they want to be even more ambitious and believe 6,100 homes is an achievable target.

Falkirk’s central location already makes it attractive to commuters, but the council hopes many more people will be attracted to the area by the employment opportunities promised by the Falkirk Growth Deal and the Forth Green Freeport.

The Growth Deal projects – which will start soon – are expected to create up to 2,000 jobs for the area over the next ten years, while the Forth Green Freeport is expected to bring 20,000 jobs to Grangemouth.

Michael McGuinness, head of growth, planning and climate change at Falkirk Council, told Falkirk Council members that over the past ten years the area has delivered an average of 467 homes per year.

He added that the council recognizes the housing crisis affecting Scotland, so it was right to look at how they can encourage more homes to be built for people in the area.

McGuinness said: “We have a separate group of officers at Future Falkirk who are looking at even greater ambition for how many homes we can bring to the area.

He made his comments as councilors approved the draft evidence report that will help shape the new local development plan.

Councilor Paul Garner, the SNP’s economic development spokesman, said 6,100 new homes was “an ambitious but achievable target” which recognizes the housing crisis and future economic opportunities for Falkirk.

The report will now be submitted to the Scottish Government for approval.

But the 6,100 is actually a low estimate, according to the group representing housebuilders, Homes For Scotland (HfS), which will submit its own report to the government.

HfS commissioned research which calculated the need to build 29,541 homes over the ten-year period.

Whatever the accepted value, the council’s next step is to call for sites that can be approved for housing.

Mr McGuinness confirmed that some green belt sites will almost certainly form part of the cluster, but these have not yet been identified.

Many of the homes that will make up the 6,100 will be in locations that have already been identified as part of the current local development plan.

Local development plans (LDPs) work with national guidelines to guide land use and development within an area and indicate where investment in housing, business, leisure and infrastructure will occur during the plan period.

The council’s current plan (LDP2) was adopted in August 2020, but must be kept up to date and updated.

Producing an evidence report is a new step in the process, providing information that will be used to implement the plan.

The information gathered includes things like schools and health service capacity, but members have been assured that these issues will be looked at again in more detail as locations are identified.