Scottish Housing Minister Kevin Stewart visited the first homes to be delivered as part of “Edinburgh Living”, a new housing partnership between the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Futures Trust earlier this week.
Around 1,500 new affordable homes will be delivered through the Edinburgh Living initiative over the next five years with the first 44 homes located at Clermiston, in the north west of the city.
Twenty two homes at the development are to be purchased and managed by Edinburgh Living. The homes will be let as mid-market rent, targeted at households on low to moderate incomes, with the remaining homes at Clermiston to be retained by the Council for social rent. The high quality, energy efficient housing has been constructed for the Council by Robertson Partnership Homes.
The Housing Minister and Cllr Kate Campbell, Housing Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, had an opportunity to visit the development on Tuesday ahead of tenants moving into their new homes over the next few weeks.
The proposal to set up the Edinburgh Living partnership formed part of the housing programme in the Edinburgh and South East City Region Deal, signed in August 2018. The initial homes for Edinburgh Living will be delivered as part of the Council’s award-winning housebuilding programme, which is targeting 20,000 new affordable homes over the next 10 years, as part of a joint commitment for the city with housing association partners.
Cllr Kate Campbell, Convener for Housing and Economy at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “Edinburgh Living gives us another way to build much-needed, additional affordable housing in the city. It also allows us to take forward council-led mixed use developments so that we can deliver more affordable homes ourselves.
“But we don’t just want to build houses, we want to build high quality homes that will be easy to heat, where people feel safe and where tenants will have an excellent quality of life.
“These homes at Clermiston are beautiful. There’s been a real effort to provide the things people want and need – drying greens, storage and a terraced landscape gardens which will be a brilliant place for kids to play.”
Cllr Lezley Marion Cameron, Vice Convener for Housing and Economy at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “I warmly welcome completion of the first 44 new homes by Edinburgh Living, and the contribution this makes towards success in reaching the number of new homes required to help meet the unmet and growing demand for modern, energy efficient housing with rental levels which people in Edinburgh can more easily afford.
“With a location close to good public transport, there is already a high level of interest from potential tenants with 30 viewings being undertaken yesterday alone.”
Kevin Stewart, Housing Minister said: “I am delighted to visit Clermiston to launch Edinburgh Living and view the first 22 homes for mid-market rent completed as part of this initiative.
“The Scottish Government is committed to increasing and accelerating housing supply. We’re supporting the industry and local authorities to deliver their housing priorities with quality homes that fit individual and community needs.
“That’s why we were keen to support the City of Edinburgh Council in their efforts to develop Edinburgh Living.
“Through the City Region Deal, we have approved a funding package comprised of on-lending consents up to £248m and a one-off capital grant of £16.1m, to enable the council to establish Edinburgh Living as a Regional Housing Company, which will deliver a minimum of 1,500 homes at mid-market rent and market rent levels.”
Christa Reekie, commercial director at the Scottish Futures Trust, said: “Increasing the supply and improving the quality of housing across Scotland remains a key priority for our award-winning housing experts who are working to put in place innovative solutions to increase the supply of housing across all tenures in Scotland.
“Our collaboration with The City of Edinburgh Council has created ‘Edinburgh Living’, a joint venture that will deliver 1,500 much-needed, affordable and market rent homes in Edinburgh. This innovative partnership marks a huge step forward in increasing the supply of high quality and energy efficient homes for rent in various locations around the city for many years to come.”
As part of the City Region Deal, Scottish Government consented for the Council to lend £248m to the new LLPs as well as the Scottish Government providing a grant of £16.1m for the company providing housing for mid market rent. A total of £484,000 in grant funding was received from the Scottish Government for the delivery of the mid market rent homes at Clermiston.
About 7,000 fewer homes a year are being built in Scotland than needed, according to analysis published this week.
Academics and house builders agree that there is a continuing need for at least 23,000 new homes a year – and that figure rises to 25,000 if you add in extra homes needed to catch up with the backlog – but in the year to last October, only 18,000 homes were built, according to BBC Scotland.
Academics at the University of Glasgow said house builders tended to “drip feed” the market, to keep prices high.
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