The main focus of the Dumfries and Galloway Council Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) is to set out how the Council intends to meet its affordable housing requirements over a five year rolling programme. The SHIP details how the affordable housing investment priorities will be delivered in practice.

As with any Council project of this type, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) could be carried out to ensure that any housing does not impact harshly on the environment.  The SEA ensures that Council strategies, plans and programmes are effectively assessed and monitored.

Dumfries and Galloway Council has carried out a screening of the SHIP 2009-2014 to assess if an SEA is required and has determined that the plan is unlikely to have a significant environmental impact, and so in this instance, a SEA is not needed.