Edinburgh Council is playing word games over its missed affordable homes pledge – John McLellan

It’s the Edinburgh Council SNP-Labour coalition’s number one commitment of 52: “Deliver a programme to build at least 10,000 social and affordable homes over the next five years, with a plan to build 20,000 by 2027.”

Thousands of affordable homes have been built in Edinburgh but not as many as some people may have expected (PIcture: PA)

Signed off in August 2017, the promise to build 10,000 affordable homes in five years has been repeatedly used by administration figureheads as the best illustration of their ambition, but in a development of breath-taking and shameless cynicism, all is not what it seems.

Back in November 2017, council leader Adam McVey said in an interview with the Edinburgh Reporter website: “We have set a mid-point marker of 10,000 homes in the next five years which is more than we were planning for. We’ve got a wee bit more to go before we hit that 10,000 and then a bit more to go to ensure that our on-stream continues into the next administration so that they can deliver another 10,000 on top of what we will do in this one in the next five years.”

Fair enough. A month later he wrote in the Evening News: “Building 20,000 affordable homes in the next decade (10,000 in the next five years) is the most ambitious expansion of affordable homes the Capital has ever seen.”

The following February he told Holyrood Magazine: “The next six months to a year are going to be crucial because a lot of what we’re hoping to deliver is reliant on the building blocks we are making now. One example is the 10,000 affordable homes we’re hoping to build in the next five years.”

In case there was any doubt, a housing report to the finance and resources committee last February noted: “Work is well underway to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing in the city and to achieve this council’s commitment to build at least 10,000 social and affordable homes over five years (by 2022).”

Long before the pandemic, it was clear the target would be missed and a report to last week’s housing, homelessness and fair work committee confirmed the council is around 5,000 short of its aim: 3,568 new affordable homes have been completed since the commitment was made, with a further 1,373 expected this year. No mean achievement, but to honour the pledge 5,059 more affordable homes will need to be finished in the first eight months of 2022, impossible with only 2,150 approvals in the pipeline.

It would have been pragmatic to accept the slippage, re-set the target and celebrate such success as there has been, but in a move of staggering condescension at last week’s meeting the administration claimed there was never a promise to build 10,000 in five years, just to deliver a programme.

We are expected to swallow the ludicrous claim the goal has been reached and that we stupid opposition councillors have got it all wrong in thinking otherwise. But then why did the original commitment refer to delivering a programme for 10,000, but only a plan for 20,000? Linguistic chicanery was evident in the second part, but not the first.

But if we were mistaken, what about Cllr McVey? Either he repeatedly misunderstood his own top pledge or his administration is in denial and shamelessly playing you, the Edinburgh public, for fools. You choose.

John McLellan is a Conservative councillor

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