Development guidance - Rural Housing
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Description
The Council is supportive of new rural housing which safeguards, supports and sustains Highland rural communities and encourages people to live and work in healthy, high quality environments. To achieve this, in 2021 the Council adopted its Rural Housing Supplementary Guidance to provide detailed advice on acceptable locations for new house sites and advice on the siting and design of new housing. In 2023 the Scottish Government adopted National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) in 2023 and for the first time NPF4 including a number of Planning Policies, which need to be considered as part of the planning decision making process, along with the Council existing Local Development Plan policies.
To assist in the understanding between the differing policies the Council has published a Rural Housing Supplementary Guidance – Explanatory Note to sit alongside the adopted RHSG and Development Plan and will used in decision making for all current and future rural housing planning applications
To assist in understanding the different policy requirements, the Council has prepared an interactive map to assist in identifying the boundaries of each of the policy areas.
Rural Housing Supplementary Guidance (2021)
The Rural Housing Supplementary Guidance was adopted by Highland Council on 10th December 2021 and now forms part of the Council’s Development Plan, which is used to determine planning applications. Approval to adopt the guidance was granted by Members of the Highland Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee on 1st September 2021 and Scottish Ministers on 1st November 2021.
The guidance relates to the area covered by the Highland-wide Local Development Plan and the associated Area Local Development Plans. For proposals within the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) area please refer to the Cairngorms National Park Local Development Plan (external link) and their associated Planning Guidance for relevant planning policies and advice.
Self-Build Housing
Rural self-build housing has always been an important part of house building across the Highlands, as such, the Council is keen to encourage appropriate self-build opportunities and has developed a dedicated webpage (including the creation of a ‘Self-Build Register’) to support this form of development.
Pre-application Planning Advice
The Council strongly welcomes the opportunity to provide pre-application advice on both siting and design before any formal planning application is submitted, information about how to do this can be found on the Council's website.
Strategic Environmental Assessment