Granton housing plan misguided and unequal to the task - Iain Whyte
Those with long memories know that the council has been talking about developing housing at Granton for at least 30 years. It’s another of those ambitious targets that never quite delivers.
The latest attempt was described by the Labour council leader in the Evening News this week as a £1.3bn development, although the council is only looking to develop part of the site at a cost of £143m at this stage. This is largely funded by the taxpayer – council tenants mostly pay rent with Housing Benefit.
There are those who will argue that this scheme is necessary because we have a “housing emergency” but a quick look at the numbers shows the impact on that will be negligible.
Edinburgh’s population is growing by about 8600 people a year and we already have over 5000 households in temporary homeless accommodation. Granton is only scheduled to house 8000 people in 3500 homes.
Emergency actions normally mean now, but “phase 1” is only 850 homes and won’t be completed until 2033. That leaves some truly heroic funding and building targets to achieve 3500 by the council target of 2040.
More than half of the cost is to build 200 council houses at almost £400k a pop and averaging two beds each. This eye watering cost per unit doesn’t even include the land purchase or decontamination cost.
The expectation is that the homes for private sale will be built to the same gold-plated, Net Zero standard the council has specified. This is economic madness for a private housebuilder when you can currently buy a modern two bed flat at Saltire Street for offers over £190k with others at Waterfront Gait and Park being cheaper.
The costs are partly inflated by the £30k needed for a high spec heat pump in each home and piping to connect to a district heat network. The latter won’t happen because the private sector delivery partner has abandoned it. The risks on future revenue don’t justify the initial build cost. Remember, a gas boiler costs about £2k.
Will the new residents help the council’s hard-pressed finances? No, because the rent and council tax will have to be used to pay back the debt incurred for construction and we also need a new school building.
In true Labour style it’s like Rachel Reeves’ budget. Those working and paying tax elsewhere will have to stump up for something that doesn’t solve the problem.