Rainbow coalition forces council U-turn on home rents rise across Edinburgh

A coalition of Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green Party councillors has defeated the Edinburgh City Council’s ruling SNP/Labour coalition to win a rent freeze for council tenants.

Council leader Adam McVey had backed rents rise

The coalition was organised late last night, after the three main opposition parties on the council submitted rival budget proposals, that called for rent to be frozen for 2021/22.

As part of the city’s 2021/22 budget – due to be agreed at a meeting of the local authority today – the SNP/Labour ruling administration had proposed increasing rent for the council’s 20,000 tenants by 2 per cent.

The rise would have netted £2m for the council for the coming financial year, and the ruling coalition said the majority of households would feel no impact on their income, as Universal Credit would cover the increase.

The SNP/Labour coalition also pointed to the annual tenant’s survey, which collated responses from 1,000 tenants, which found 98 per cent of respondents were in favour of the increase in exchange for renovations and general improvements to the council’s building stock.

However, the Edinburgh Tenants’ Association, led by Betty Stone, called for the funding to be taken from rent arrears which are owed to the council.

A deputation to the council from the ETA reads: “Edinburgh Tenants Federation (ETF) is asking elected members to consider freezing rather than increasing rents paid by City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) tenants in 2021/22.

“The last year has been like no other in terms of the financial pressures tenants and other people have endured as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In our day to day contact with tenants in our communities, local tenants’ and residents’ groups and with our federation members we have become aware of tenants losing income and jobs, which has meant some have struggled to pay their current rent.

“In addition, as the furlough scheme is due to close at the end of April, we at ETF are concerned that this will push even more tenants into poverty.

“It is our view that many tenants will simply not be able to afford the 2% rent increase.

“ETF representatives would like to see CEC try to recoup the rent arrears from tenants which have built up during the pandemic rather than increase the rents.

“Furthermore, ETF hopes that CEC accepts the 3 per cent offer from the Scottish government instead of increasing the council tax.”

The SNP/Labour administration was defeated by 27 votes to 34.

More reaction to follow.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.