Council tax set for 5% rise - with £1.6bn plan to tackle housing crisis
Plus: Oscar nod for city writer; solar lights first for city parks; and Waverley Station gets busier
Council tax set to rise to fund £1.6bn programme to tackle Capital’s housing crisis
Budget plans due to be discussed by city councillors would see a council tax rise of 5% - expected to be amongst the lowest in Scotland – which will help fund a £1.6 billion, five-year programme to tackle the Capital’s housing emergency.
The proposed rise would see average Band D bills go up by £78 a year to a total of around £2,242 once water and sewerage charges are included. Many other councils including Midlothian are contemplating double-digit increases.
If agreed, the plan should deliver almost 6000 affordable homes and a supply of temporary accommodation that will eliminate unsuitable temporary accommodation being used for homeless households. Some of the funds would come from the Visitor Levy which will be charged in the Capital from July.
The figures are contained in a budget strategy due to go before the Finance and Resources Committee on Tuesday, 3 February.
This follows hard on the heels of First Minister John Swinney’s announcement of a new national housing agency for Scotland, More Homes Scotland. Housing bodies are warning a significant increase in public investment will be needed to make it successful in accelerating housing provision.
What will the new agency do?
It will focus on a number of key areas, including large-scale affordable housing projects; acquiring, preparing and releasing land; enabling infrastructure work to unlock stalled sites; and closer working with the Scottish National Investment Bank to make best use of private finance. This largely mirrors the work of Homes England, which is ahead of target in delivering 1.5 million new homes within five years.
Great – when does it start?
The agency is expected to be fully functional in 2028–29, subject to the result of May’s Scottish Parliament election. It’s funding package has yet to be decided.
But it will be good for Edinburgh, yes?
We all hope so. The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations has stressed it must be backed by significantly increased public investment, with research showing annual funding of £1.6bn is required to meet housing need. Homes for Scotland, the housebuilders’ body, says commercial insight needs to be built in to the Agency’s design to stimulate greater private sector investment.
What does the council think?
The council leader, Labour’s Jane Meagher, said: “If this body has money and powers to help councils and our partners build homes, then all well and good. If, however, it’s just more centralisation and extra layers, then a huge opportunity to reform our broken system will have been wasted.” She described the council’s £1.6 billion plan as “one of the largest housing interventions by a local authority in modern times and all deliverable before the Scottish Government’s new quango puts a spade in the ground”.
What about the rest of the council budget?
Jane Meagher said her party’s proposals, which need the backing of the Lib Dems and Conservatives, strike a balance between protecting frontline services and protecting residents and businesses from rising costs. “That’s why we’re proposing one of the lowest, if not the lowest, council tax rises in Scotland and why we’re proposing to freeze most fees and charges for the next 12 months.” The city would “continue to carry the can” for social care costs, she added.
YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING
WAVERLEY OVERTAKING: Waverley Station is set to overtake Glasgow Central as the busiest in Scotland for the first time in its 150 year history. Network Rail says a post-Covid decline in commuting and the rise of leisure travel is responsible for the shift. Saturday is now the busiest day for train travel. More than 32 million passengers used Waverley last year.
OSCAR NOD: Maggie O’Farrell has described being shortlisted for an Oscar for her adaptation of her novel Hamnet as “surreal”. The Edinburgh-based author is up for best adapted screenplay, one of eight Oscar nominations for the film of her award-winning novel about the lives of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes.
SOLAR FIRST: Edinburgh has become the first UK city to instal hybrid lights in its parks, which use solar energy and automatically switch to mains electricity when that isn’t possible. Smart sensors dim the lights when paths are empty. The lights have been installed at Baronscourt Park, Hailes Quarry Park and Ferniehill, with solar powered lighting at Dundas, in South Queensferry.
BRUTA-LIST: Historic Environment Scotland is considering a bid to block the demolition of the Brutalist office block Argyle House. The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, the Twentieth Century Society and Docomomo Scotland, which campaigns to protect 20th century architecture, have applied for it to be given listed building status. The office block, off the Grassmarket, faces demolition as part of a major regeneration project.
MOBILE TALK: As the nation debates the idea of banning under-16s from social media, pupils, parents and staff in Edinburgh are being invited to have their say on plans to extend the ban on mobile phones in schools across the city. The ban has been trialled successfully using lockable pouches to put phones out of use during class time in Portobello and Queensferry high schools.
CONGESTION DAY: Edinburgh has been identified as the UK’s second most congested city, behind Belfast, by the traffic monitoring company TomTom. The worst day for congestion was said to be 21 August, when the Fringe was in full swing and there was a major concert at Murrayfield - no, not Oasis, but AC/DC.
LONGER JOURNEYS: Journeys on one Lothian Bus service, the 38 from Granton to the Royal Infirmary, take 20 minutes longer than in 2005, new data has shown. Green councillors in Edinburgh are calling for more reporting of journey times and increasing measures, such as 7-day-a-week bus lanes, to speed up delayed services.
FIGHTER PLANE JOBS: A £450 million upgrade of the RAF’s Typhoon fighter planes has been announced, securing the future of 300 skilled jobs at the Leonardo factory on Crewe Road North. UK Defence Secretary John Healey visited the facility, which will make the jets’ radar systems and has been targeted by pro-Palestine protesters, to announce the investment.
HAMMER DRONES: An East Lothian aerospace start-up has launched a new attack drone which it says offers the same capabilities as European alternatives, but at up to £100,000 cheaper. Ross Laing, director of the Edinburgh Drone Company, based at Macmerry, described the development of the Hammer drones as “a landmark moment for Scotland’s defence manufacturing base”.
COASTAL SINK HOLE: A huge sinkhole has opened up in a coastal road after the sea defences were breached at Dunbar. Lamer Street which runs alongside the town’s East Beach has been closed while repairs are carried out.
Pic of the week
THE BUSINESS
DEAL POSTED: Waverley Gate, the former GPO building in the city centre, is reportedly being sold for around £85 million. Real Estate industry publication Green Street News maintains the transaction – with New York-listed Kennedy Wilson selling to London-based property investment firm Melford Capital – would be one of the biggest Scottish office deals “in many years.”
CONTRACT WIN: Edinburgh-based Commsworld, a leading UK-wide provider of networking and connectivity solutions, has secured a 15-year contract worth over £8m to deliver and maintain a new Wide Area Network (WAN) for West Lothian Council, delivering a ten-fold increase in available bandwidth.
FIRST FOOT: Australian heritage footwear brand R.M.Williams has opened its first Scottish store at 107 George Street. The new store will carry the full footwear, apparel and accessories range, and in-store services include expert boot fitting, repairs and restoration, complimentary boot polishing and personalisation.
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
LAND OF GIANTS: Discover life-sized 3D sculptures, skeletons and fossils of giant snakes, rhinos, sharks, sloths, and more. Step back in time 66 million years at the Giants exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland. Opens Saturday and runs until 14 September. Tickets from £13.
TURNER’S OFF: You only have until Saturday to catch the Turner watercolours at the National Gallery before they go back under wraps for another year.
THE LYCEUM IN YOUR HOME: To celebrate its 60th birthday, The Royal Lyceum has commissioned four 30-minute plays which it will perform outside the theatre and in people’s homes in June. The plays have been specially written by leading Scottish writers, Apphia Campbell (Black is the Color of My Voice, Through the Mud), Alexander McCall Smith (The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, 44 Scotland Street novels), Isla Cowan (Alright Sunshine, To the Bone),and Stephen Greenhorn (Sunshine on Leith, River City). You can apply to have the place you call home used as a venue for one of the plays here.
QUICK BITES
RELAX ELEANORE: Multi award-winning fine-dining restaurant Eleanore in Albert Place is to close at the end of this month for a refurbishment. Owners Rebecca Hall McCarron and Shaun McCarron want to return the venue to a neighbourhood bistro, with a more relaxed atmosphere.
BAR ZERO: Scotland’s first alcohol-free bar, Sobr in Aberdeen, is planning to test the market in Edinburgh this year with a series of pop-ups. Owner Kate Kenyon maintains a Capital opening is a goal for 2027.