Agenda item

“Council:-

1)         Instructs officers to remove, with immediate effect, section 3.16 of the Student Accommodation Technical Advice Note (TAN), which states that "Purpose built student accommodation is not required to contribute to affordable housing".

2)         Notes that Aberdeen City Council has the power to request an affordable housing component from student housing, and therefore instructs officers to seek to obtain an affordable housing component in relation to all future student accommodation applications.”

The Council had before it the following notice of motion by Councillor Flynn:-

            “Council:-

(1)      Instructs officers to remove, with immediate effect, section 3.16 of the Student Accommodation Technical Advice Note (TAN), which states that “Purpose built student accommodation is not required to contribute to affordable housing”.

(2)      Notes that Aberdeen City Council has the power to request an affordable housing component from student housing, and therefore instructs officers to seek to obtain an affordable housing component in relation to all future student accommodation applications.”

Councillor Flynn moved, seconded by Councillor Dickson:-

That the Council approve the terms of the motion, and agree that where a development of student accommodation is proposed, a requirement of 25% affordable housing contribution would be applied.

Councillor Milne moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Donnelly:-

            That the Council -

(1)      note that SNP Councillors Cormie, Dickson, Jaffrey, Noble and Stuart all voted to approve the Technical Advice Note - Student Accommodation - CHI/15/214 at the Planning Development Management Committee on 16 July 2015;

(2)      note Aberdeen City Council has not historically nor does it currently require affordable housing from student accommodation developments;

(3)      note that it is not the practice of any local authority in Scotland, including Edinburgh or Glasgow to do so, and the Council is not aware of any London boroughs which seek it;

(4)      agree that Aberdeen City Council does not seek affordable housing for several reasons:-

a.    it is recognised across the UK that the provision of student accommodation reduces pressure on the housing market;

b.    due to the nature of student accommodation much higher densities can be achieved on these sites than would be achievable for market housing, approximately 2 to 10 times more bed-spaces;

c.    student accommodation helps to reduce pressure and demand for HMOs and temporary accommodation which are harder to regulate due to their size;

d.    not requiring affordable housing makes these developments more viable encouraging better managed and better quality schemes to come forward, this in turn helps to support our high quality tertiary education sector; and

e.    managed developments give residents and the Council a central contact point to address any issues;

(5)       agree that it is also extremely difficult to calculate the affordable housing contribution from student accommodation and even more so from historic accommodation; a common misunderstanding is that the 25% affordable housing policy can be applied to a student accommodation development and this will calculate what “would have been achievable”, this ignores the fact that affordable housing is based on unit numbers (houses or flats) not bed-spaces. Student accommodation is designed around numbers of bed-spaces either in studio flats or in a cluster format, i.e. a number of bed spaces served by central kitchen and communal facilities; and

(6)       agree that the removal of section 3.16 of the Student Accommodation Technical Advice Note would stifle development and regeneration throughout the city.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

At this juncture, Councillor Carle declared an interest in the item of business under consideration by virtue of his employment by Aberdeen University Students’ Association, however Councillor Carle did not consider that the nature of his interest required him to leave the meeting.

On a division, there voted:-           

For the motion  (20)  -  Councillors Cameron, Copland, Corall, Cormie, Delaney, Dickson, Jackie Dunbar, Flynn, Greig, Hutchison, Jaffrey, MacGregor, Malone, Nicoll, Noble, Samarai, Jennifer Stewart, Sandy Stuart, Townson and Yuill.

For the amendment  (21)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Allan, Boulton, Carle, Cooney, Crockett, Donnelly, Lesley Dunbar, Finlayson, Graham, Grant, Ironside, Laing, Lawrence, Malik, Milne, Jean Morrison, Nathan Morrison, Taylor and Young.

The Council resolved:-

to adopt the amendment.