Market needs more freedom for housing

Oh dear, more student flats planned for Jock’s Lodge, next to the site rejected by Edinburgh City Council’s planning councillors but approved by the Scottish Government’s reporters.

There will be the usual protests, but the outcome will almost certainly be the same, just as the flats planned for the other end of Willowbrae Road suddenly became a student flat development.

An artist's impression of how the proposed student accommodation development at Jock's Lodge would look.

placeholder image — An artist's impression of how the proposed student accommodation development at Jock's Lodge would look.

As there are relatively few student blocks in the Willowbrae/Marrionville/Piershill area, the latest scheme will not fall foul of over-saturation guidelines, and as the plot currently occupied by The Ballroom pool hall is small, it could be under the new 0.25 hectare rule, above which 50 per cent of the site must be given over to housing.

Given the previous appeal decision, objectors have very little chance of success, which the developers will have factored in, and as before it’s the underlying conditions which are the real problem.

As long as the threat of government interference with the rental market remains, as contained in the Housing (Scotland) Bill, investors and developers will look elsewhere, either to reliable alternatives like student flats, or other locations outside Scotland.

The council doesn’t have the money for widespread compulsory land purchases so there is no getting away from the need for private investment and anything which might reduce future income projections makes it much less attractive.

For more affordable housing, the market needs more freedom. Just ask the Drum Property Group, which planned to develop the nearby site occupied by St Margaret’s House, but are now working on projects in Leeds and Manchester.