Homes and neighbourhoods
Over the last five years, we’ve built 563 new social rented homes. There are also around 300 social rented homes under construction and a further 2,000 in the design or pre-construction stage.
We’ve also invested £190 million on existing homes and neighbourhoods, including:
- 2,800 homes with new kitchens and bathrooms
- 4,300 homes with new modern heating systems
- 1,500 homes with new doors and windows
- 12,000 homes with electrical upgrades including rewiring or new smoke detectors
- 4,600 Council and privately owned homes benefitting from external fabric upgrade
- 3,000 adaptation measures to help tenants to live independently
- 750 blocks of flats with new door entry systems
We’ve also bought back almost 300 ex-Council homes in the last eight years. This has helped to increase the number of available Council homes and join block ownership, which in turn helps us to manage block repairs and improvements.
We’ve started to deliver improvements to mixed tenure blocks to make all blocks with Council tenancies warm, energy efficient and modern. The Mixed Tenure Improvement service continues to work alongside owners to enable works to progress and has moved into its final year of works in Wester Hailes in 2023/2024. At the end of October 2023, a total of 1,103 homes including 291 private and 812 Council homes (in phases 1 to 10) are either complete or currently undergoing works to retrofit and improve the blocks.
81.6% of tenants surveyed in 2021/22 were satisfied with the quality of their home, which was an increase from 73.2% for 2020/21. This is in line with the current local authority average of 81.8%.
How we are improving
As well as building new homes, we are committed to improving our existing homes. We have seen tenant satisfaction levels with the quality of their home roughly equal with the local authority average, though there is still more work to be done.
Improving neighbourhoods
Consultation with our tenants has shown strong support for investment in neighbourhood improvements. Our experience of lockdown has been a further reminder about the impact our local environment and having access to high quality, well managed spaces can have on our lives.
We are currently developing and implementing an improved model for neighbourhood management and maintenance across housing estates. We aim to
- improve cleanliness and use of greenspace
- increase resident satisfaction with their neighbourhood as a place to live
- use resources more efficiently.
We have reviewed the Neighbourhood Environmental projects programme and are developing an improved approach through engagement with stakeholders that is more efficient and improves tenant and resident engagement.
Making homes more energy efficient
We are also working to make our homes easier and cheaper to heat while lowering the amount of carbon they produce. A significant level of intervention in existing homes is required to deliver advanced whole house retrofit to meet statutory requirements for energy efficiency and net zero carbon. This presents the opportunity to also incorporate wider building improvements at the same time, for example
- rewiring
- roof and gutter replacements
- kitchen and bathrooms
- fabric improvements
- new ventilation systems
- windows and doors
and will help to embed a more proactive approach to long term asset management to reduce future maintenance and repair risks.
The whole house retrofit pilot will focus on ten of the most common building types across the Council estate. Phase 1 of the whole house retrofit pilot programme commenced construction at the end of October 2023, with phases 2 and 3 currently out to tender. The phase 1 programme includes sites at
- Gilmerton Dykes Crescent
- Southouse Avenue
- Burdiehouse Drive.
The first low rise area-based scheme will include the following sites and will be on-site at Bingham at the end of 2023:
- Bingham
- Magdalen
- The Christians
For the Council’s high rise blocks, 12 blocks are now in design and development for full block retrofit and upgrade, with the first blocks aiming to be on site from 2024/25. The blocks currently in design are
- Oxcars and Inchmickery Court
- Craigmillar and Peffermill Court
- Cables Wynd and Linksview House
- the six Moredun high rise blocks.
Mixed ownership repairs
The Mixed Tenure Improvement service will continue the final phase in Wester Hailes in the remaining months of 2023/24, where a further 168 homes are expected to be upgraded. Work has already begun to develop a programme for around 200 blocks in Restalrig and Lochend, involving more than 1,000 Council and privately owned homes.