​Affordable homes must be key to West Town development - Susan Dalgety

The proposal for West Town – the new neighbourhood planned for a 205-acre site on the west of the city – is billed as one of the most “significant and sustainable urban expansions” in a generation.

A street view of West Town - the developers want to create a 'walk-around village feel'.

​I suggest it is the most important development since the New Town was built. Edinburgh is bursting at the seams. Rents are sky high. House prices continue to rise. There is not enough social housing to meet demand.

Only last week this newspaper reported that there had been 800 applications for one council-owned home in the south west of the city. While this was unusually high, the average number of bids for each social home is 200.

The chances of a family – or a single person – securing an affordable property to call home are pretty slim unless they are earning well above the city’s median wage of £36,000 a year.

The glossy website for West Town, which is being developed by Drum Property Group, asserts that the plan “presents the opportunity to meet the housing needs of the nation’s Capital”.

It will be a “homes-led town centre neighbourhood”, the blurb continues, which will provide jobs, community facilities and business and retail, all within a 20-minute neighbourhood. There will be space for 7000 new homes.

7N Architects, which has master-planned the scheme, said most things residents need will be within a short distance from their homes. This should mean less reliance on cars.

Private car use will be limited, controlled and managed, the practice said. Parking in the development will be shared and centralised. A tram line will run through the development with one stop and the site would have integrated rail connections.

And there is more. The development will offer 27 acres of accessible green space which will include West Town’s very own ‘central park’, a ‘wildlife’ corridor, and a network of cycle and running tracks.

Pedestrians haven’t been forgotten either as there will be “walking tracks” provided too, which I suppose is new development speak for pavements.

There is even an agreement between West Town and the city council, so if planning permission is approved, work can start on site before the end of this year, with the first homes ready for occupation from early 2026 and the development finished by 2033.

As it has taken me nearly two years to refurbish my kitchen, I am very impressed by their ambitious timetable.

But the devil is in the detail. Exactly how many affordable homes for long-term rental will be available? The developers say they will follow the guidelines set out by the proposed Edinburgh City Plan 2030.

These suggest that any new development should have a minimum of 35 per cent of “affordable homes” – which could mean that West Town will offer at least 2450 houses for rent.

Or does it? What is an “affordable home”? Is it one that sells for less than £150,000 or one that rents for less than £1000 a month?

Or is it a luxury apartment that only someone on £50,000 a year could afford to rent?

When the city council signed the agreement last May to work with Drum Property Group on the new neighbourhood, council leader Councillor Cammy Day said the development could unlock a “huge amount of social housing,” adding, “…this is what our city desperately needs.”

He’s right. Our city does need affordable housing for long-term rental, but will the £2 billion West Town development provide those much-needed homes?

Before this development goes any further, surely councillors need to know exactly what is on offer?