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Fit For The 21st Century
The Answer For Edinburgh’s Housing Leaflet sent to Council tenants |
From Councillor Sheila Gilmore |
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| "We want to improve housing in Edinburgh and make a real difference to the quality of life for all. This might seem ambitious, but we believe that by working together it’s achievable. We need to change the ways in which we fund improvements to housing and communities and we’ve been discussing this with the Scottish Executive. I believe that we’re on the brink of a once in a life-time opportunity to deliver this vision."
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Our Housing Priorities |
| In 2002, working together with our tenants and partners, we produced our ambitious City Housing Strategy. It aims to ensure that everyone living in Edinburgh has a good quality of life. When we produced the Strategy, you told us that we should focus on five key areas:
For some time now we’ve been looking at how to deliver and fund these key aims. |
| Affordable Housing |
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We need to significantly increase the amount of affordable housing that’s available in Edinburgh. In recent years, the cost of buying or renting a property in the city has increased significantly. But, if Edinburgh is to remain a prosperous and vibrant city, then it’s vital that everyone has access to affordable housing. This means building 10,000 additional affordable homes over the next ten years. We’ve agreements in place to ensure that all major housing developments have some affordable housing, but this isn’t enough. This will only deliver 400 new affordable homes every year, and we need 1,000. To achieve this, we need to substantially increase the amount of money we invest over the next few years. |
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The Edinburgh Standard |
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Working with our tenants, we agreed a set of standards that we should meet to ensure that our houses are fit for the 21st Century. This includes:
To deliver this will require a massive investment. |
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Better Neighbourhoods |
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We know from our discussions that many of you are concerned about your neighbourhood. Everyone in Edinburgh should be living in a clean, attractive and safe neighbourhood. This means neighbourhoods that are well-maintained and free from crime and antisocial behaviour. We’ve already taken major steps forward by investing in additional police officers and community wardens. But, we still need to ensure that neighbourhoods are easy to keep clean and safe. |
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Regeneration |
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We’ve already begun the process of regeneration in Edinburgh, but we want to progress this citywide. In Granton the exciting Waterfront development will lead to remarkable changes, with nearly 2,000 affordable homes being built over the next few years. Craigmillar has also seen significant changes, with many older homes being demolished, and good quality housing being built in their place. These are the kind of changes we want to see happening citywide, particularly in areas such as Pennywell, the Fort, North Sighthill and Royston/Wardieburn. |
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How Can We Fund These Changes? |
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These changes will cost many millions of pounds. We’ve been discussing ways in which we can achieve this together with the Scottish Executive. A key part of our discussions is looking at ways in which we can secure nearly £2billion in funding to ensure that we meet in full the aims we described in our City Housing Strategy. By securing this funding we can help ensure the city’s future growth and development for future generations. |
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Your View Counts |
Please tell us what you think of our plans for the future of the City of Edinburgh Council’s Housing. or you can phone for free on 0800 028 2211 |
Further links |
Housing Transfer - What it means to you - information about the Council's plans to transfer council homes to City of Edinburgh Housing Association Introduction to Better Homes for Edinburgh programme City Housing Strategy - 2002 - 2007 |
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