Town Centre Action Plan: Scottish Government response

Our response to the National Review of Town Centres.


Town Centre Living

The idea of encouraging more people to live in town centres is one which the Scottish Government will endorse. Whilst many local authorities are already promoting town centre living, we will test the opportunities and barriers to this through our Town Centre Housing Fund. The Scottish Government also understands that town centre living requires a need for safer and more people-friendly environments. The Scottish Government will undertake the following:

Actions

Timescale-
Short/Medium/Long*

  • We will commit £2m towards a Town Centre Housing Fund that will act as a demonstration project to help bring empty town centre properties back into use for affordable housing.

Short

  • We will identify best practice and models of engagement to encourage owners of empty properties to bring these back into use as affordable housing.

Short

  • We will work with COSLA to strengthen Local Housing Strategy ( LHS) guidance to support local authorities to consider prioritising housing for town centres and to identify potential for mixed use living in town centres.

Short

  • We will facilitate and support affordable housing development in town centres through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme ( AHSP).

Short

  • We will share learning from our National Community Planning Support Framework project and the Assets Focused Approaches project to ensure our towns are safer places.

Short

* Timescales: Short - within 6 months-1 year; Medium - 6 months-3 years; Long - 3-5 years

Contact

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