What’s next for Scotland’s housing emergency – an Edinburgh case study

15 Oct 24

Iceni Projects remains committed to working with partners across all sectors to play our part in addressing the crisis through effective engagement, industry-leading advice, and delivery of planning applications for new homes across the country.

In May this year, the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency acknowledging the mounting pressures on housing supply and affordability across all tenures.

Our planning system plays a pivotal role in determining how quickly and effectively new homes can be delivered, and planning will be front-and-centre of the wider housing emergency response.

The City of Edinburgh Council’s City Plan 2030 serves as a useful case study, with the city having declared its own housing emergency in November 2023. In July 2024, the Council notified the Scottish Government of its intention to adopt City Plan 2030.

However, on 10th September, the Government issued a directive requiring amendments to the Plan before its adoption. Most notably, to support the declared housing emergency, this included an amendment to housing policy to provide explicit support for development that addresses “local housing priorities by meeting identified gaps in provision”. The modified plan is expected to be adopted on 8th November 2024.

The broader development industry has questioned whether City Plan 2030 can deliver the housing Edinburgh needs. The Council’s brownfield-led strategy allocates numerous existing business and industrial sites for housing development, in many cases with no knowledge of the landowners’ development intentions – while no new greenbelt sites have been identified.

This approach, which Homes for Scotland and other experts have labelled “unrealistic” and “high-risk,” is further hampered by NPF4 Policy 16, which severely limits opportunities for development on non-allocated greenfield sites from coming forward.

City Plan 2030 considers its 10-year housing land supply to be significantly in excess of Edinburgh’s housing land requirement, however much of this supply comprises ‘constrained opportunity sites’ which are unlikely to be developed soon, leaving a significant – and alarming – potential supply shortfall.

The Scottish Government, while conditionally approving City Plan 2030, has strongly urged the Council to prioritise preparation of a new local development plan to ensure compliance with NPF4 and help address the housing crisis. However, this does not solve the immediate problem of homelessness or the broader lack of housing across all tenures.

Edinburgh’s case shows that the housing emergency is starting to influence local policy – a positive development. Yet, no immediate solution has been found, and the pressing issues of homelessness and affordability are worsening. More action is needed from both national and local governments, in collaboration with the industry, to tackle this complex but solvable issue within a meaningful timescale.