Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron writes about the improvements the city council is making to blocks in Edinburgh:
Across Edinburgh, hundreds of residents are seeing improvements to their homes and neighbourhoods, thanks to the Council’s Mixed Tenure Improvement Service (MTIS).
Launched in Wester Hailes in 2021, the initiative tackles the long-standing challenge of maintaining mixed-tenure buildings – where some homes are owned by the council and some by private owners. Many of these blocks need significant investment to common areas due to age, lack of formal factoring arrangements and regular maintenance of shared parts of the blocks.
In Magdalene, Bingham and The Christians, work has been underway since summer 2024, with many homes are now nearing completion. Entrances are brighter and more secure, paths are safer and more accessible, and anti-social behaviour has been reduced by creating more welcoming, well-kept communities.
These works are complex and necessary, and I am pleased that they are delivering positive and visible results.
Together with councillor colleagues I recently visited the area to see first hand the scale and quality of the work taking place. We visited original blocks, some mid-refurbishment and some nearing completion. What stood out to me is how much the work has had an immediate effect, not only on how buildings look and function, but also on how people feel about where they live.
Residents have told us how much they value the work being done and it’s encouraging to hear from residents the sense of community and pride these improvements are helping to support and flourish.
That is why the MTIS is such an important and valued part of the city’s wider housing strategy, by allowing us to tackle long-standing maintenance issues in a way which benefits all parties. Private owners are supported through the process, and council tenants and residents benefit from living in buildings that are properly looked after.
Of course, this work isn’t without its challenges. Co-ordinating works among different owners takes time, patience and care but the results we are seeing now clearly demonstrate the success of the service and more importantly, that residents value it.
As the programme continues to roll out across the city, we shall keep listening to residents, working with owners, and making sure these improvements deliver lasting value.
Everyone deserves a home that is safe, warm, and well-maintained. Through this service, we are making that a reality and I look forward to seeing such progress continue.
This is some nice PR. However, having been living through this for the past two years, as a homeowner this has been the worst experience of my life. Some of my neighbours were made homeless due to it, others will be in lifelong debt. It is, at best, an acquisition scheme to buy back the ex council homes at a below market value from owners unable to pay £45k+.
We are given absolutely no information about the decisions on our homes, no influence over designs or scope of work. The council are not transparent and are not working with the community. The council will ultimately record it as a success as the officers are under no obligation to record the unintended consequences of forcing through mass scale works on a vulnerable community.
The council have yet to conceive of any regular maintenance policy for their fully owned blocks. So the promise for long standing value is very much an empty statement.
There is a reason the council have left the Lochend area out of this press release.
This programme should only be used as an example of what not to do in retrofit and repairs.
Shame that the council let the disrepair fall to this shameful standard, hike up a massive 20% management fee for organising and liasoning during the works whilst low income households are paying astronomical prices for their part after trying to get council to do their part for years. then residents who are under going the scheme currently are left during the works with a number of issues including flooding, dampness, gardens of council tenants destroyed, internet boxes cemented over, wires cut, glass, rocks, nails plus more debris just left everywhere outside doorways not cleaned up after, liaison officers not doing their jobs properly, no proper safety measures put fully in place for young children living there after being informed months prior to start date, during beginning of works actually taking place and month after. ld kids being put in danger, with nothing done until after not only numerous complaints and until police are called out due to one ld child getting onto the scaffolding. Yes fab job earning that 20% indeed