City of Edinburgh Council aims to create at least 16,000 affordable and low-cost homes by investing £2 billion over ten years.
This is the most eye-catching target in a nine-point strategy being consulted upon by CEC’s Health, Social Care and Housing Committee at the moment.
It comes as work begins on the major residential development at Shrubhill , where some 236 affordable homes will be built, thanks in part to CEC investment using loans guaranteed by the Scottish Government’s National Housing Trust.
The CEC package tackles ‘inequality, high housing costs, and high levels of need and demand’ across the city.
The proposals aim to:
- Build 8k new affordable and low-cost homes (a number to be matched by housing associations) via £2 billion investment
- Speed up house building on public-sector sites, and invest in other public-service priorities across Edinburgh and the region
- Use CEC compulsory intervention powers where development has stalled
- Invest in new and existing homes to reduce cost of living for those on low or moderate incomes
- Coordinate housing and other investment with service development to improve surrounding neighbourhoods
- Invest up to £300 million to support integrated health and social support services for people with deteriorating health
- Make housing and related services more obvious and approachable
- Improve education, training and job opportunities for tenants
- Make sure regional and national investment and economic plans will improve Edinburgh’s housing.
The last three proposals are perhaps a little woolly, but it’s harder to snipe at the other six which promise new money, real drive to improve housing provision, and a commitment to joined-up thinking.
In practical terms, their adoption could, for example, result in a timely redevelopment of the Powderhall waste transfer site after 2018, and its integration within (rather than imposition upon) the wider community.
The updated City Housing Strategy can be found below.
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