The owner of a Highland construction firm has said "little heed" has been paid to the cost of "ever-increasing" environmentally focussed housing regulation.
Andy Knight, owner of TSL Contractors Ltd, which has headquarters in Mull and Oban said Net Zero policies had made house building very challenging, particularly on the West Coast where there is a lot of unsuitable land that is difficult to build on.
He said there was a balance to be struck between sustainability and the cost of building in rural areas facing housing shortages and declining populations.
He cited the effects of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) which aims to ensure that Scotland’s future communities will be "net zero, nature-positive places".
"There are a number of challenges and cost is one and cost has increased significantly over the past two years," he said.
"[There is] ever-expanding regulation demanded by both Scottish Government and planners - particularly the implementation of NPF4 - which is all to do with environment and sustainability.
"While the aims of the policy may be very laudable, I don't know that there has been very much heed paid to the cost increases that that's implied.
"It makes site development difficult, particularly on the West Coast, where you have a lot of unsuitable ground and a lot of peat.
"It's not just that you are not allowed to reduce biodiversity but you've actually got to try to implement a gain.
"There's the old saying about you can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs and there's definitely a balance to be struck between sustainability and the cost of building.
"There are so many areas being ruled out," he added.
He said government benchmarks set for affordable housing sites were so low that "the government and their agencies end up with the worst piece of ground".
"An awful lot of the cost of building houses is related to the ground - up to about 40% of the total," he said.
"The government grant is low in regards to ground purchase costs.
"You might be able to find brownfield sites in the central belt that fit the cost criteria but it just doesn't work out on the west coast.
"Landowners in that case will only sell really poor ground and then that costs a great deal of money to develop.
"We have a lot of land on Mull with planning consent but no one is going to sell it for the benchmark, which is circa £12,000 per housing unit, because the open market price would be anywhere between £40k and £75,000 so why would you sell if for £12,000? So people end up sitting on land and not developing it.
"I've yet to hear anyone acknowledge that this is a problem."
He said that when inflation hit a peak of 11% in 2022 this led to accusations that construction companies were "profiteering" but said many firms had had a very difficult time.
"Clients were more or less saying that they didn't believe the inflation numbers," he said.
"We were short of work for a period and you are trying to retain your workforce.
"Generally we the contractor are almost seen as in a way as being part of the problem rather than the solution," he said.
"It's not in our interests to over-price projects but we are a commercial organisation."
He added: "It would be much better if government was more candid in terms of engaging with the private sector. I think that's something that has been sorely lacking."
He said "fairly contentious and onerous" requirements for access roads were also contributing to the cost challenge for builders, referencing a recent project on the Isle of Colonsay, in which nine new homes were built.
"We had to install a road that is about 400 metres long and has areas for pedestrians to walk on, "he said. "It's now the best road in Colonsay."
His company has delivered the bulk of housing in Fort William over the last eight years, building up a local, skilled workforce of around 60-70 people.
"I'm very much a believer in local jobs for local people," he said.
"Sometimes you have too many people and sometimes you don't have enough and you are constantly trying to balance the workforce between sites."
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The Scottish Government said it recognised that pace of the transition to Net Zero housing requires "a substantial growth in supply chains, particularly in the availability of skilled clean heat and energy efficiency installers."
A spokesman added: "We are working in partnership with the sector to ensure that the appropriate support and training provision are aligned at a local level with business needs and future local demands."
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