Edinburgh housing: Council says Scottish Government must increase funding to beat housing emergency

She said the council was making good progress in reducing the number of empty council homes and bringing them back into use. It had also recently appointed two new empty homes officers to help tackle the wider issue of houses and flats sitting vacant across the Capital.

And the council's budget for 2025/26 includes £50m to build or buy homes that will be suitable as temporary accommodation.

New housing convener Lezley Marion Cameron

"We're doing our very best," said Cllr Cameron, who took over the role from Jane Meagher when she became council leader in December.

She said the Scottish Government's decision last year to cut its Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) by £196 million, resulting in Edinburgh's share being cut by 24 per cent to £34.2m, had placed further, considerable strain on the council’s ability to deliver urgently-needed new and affordable housing.

And she welcomed the decision to reverse the cut in the budget for the new financial year.

But she said: "We need serious amounts of money. As a council it's incumbent on us to do absolutely everything we can, but the reality is yet again next year we're going to be the lowest funded council in Scotland.

"We welcome the money we do get from the Scottish Government, and the UK, but we need significantly more.

"And there's a cost if we don't, including a cost to our health service from people suffering poor physical health and wellbeing from being homeless or under the threat of homelessness. These are people with families and children we're talking about."

Edinburgh's Strategic Housing Investment Pogramme (SHIP) for the next five years identifies a potential development programme of around 9,000 new affordable homes over that period.

And the council has told the Scottish Government it needs around £600m over the next five years just to deliver what is already in the pipeline. At the moment it expects to receive just £48m a year, which would add up to £240m over the five years.

But the council has written to First Minister John Swinney, arguing that the government should adopt a different funding formula.

A National Acquisition Fund was announced in 2023/24 to help buy properties from the private sector and it is distributed to the areas in most extreme need, which means Edinburgh gets the biggest share, £14.9m out of the total £40m.

Now the council is arguing that cash from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme should be shared out on the same basis, which would give Edinburgh more than £200m a year instead of the anticipated £48m, allowing it to reach £600m within three years.

A motion agreed at the council’s budget meeting last week called on the government to provide Edinburgh with “the exceptional levels of funding necessary” to resolve the housing emergency and ensure the rights of council tenants, asylum seekers and refugees.

Cllr Cameron said: “We're doing all we can within our current funding and powers and resources, but we need government to play their part and up their game.

“When you look at the things the Scottish Government has spent lots of money on - millions developing plans for National Care Service, now fallen by the wayside and squillions on ferries still not here - the most fundamental need human beings have is a roof over their head, so I make no apology for saying ‘Do better - and with urgency’.”