Friday November 28th 2025
Edinburgh City Chambers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
A housing charity has slammed a second bid by city bosses to not allocate council houses until March 2027.
Shelter Scotland has said an extension should only be granted until February of next year, and that housing staff should use the time to work up an interim allocations policy.
But Edinburgh’s top housing boss has struck back, and questioned why an interim policy is needed, saying the council has been clear over its priorities since the freeze began.
Officers will present data to councillors next week which shows the suspension has been effective in reducing the number of households in the capital in unsuitable accommodation.
From April this year, the vast majority of council housing allocations have been suspended to free up temporary accommodation spaces for people who are homeless.
Only people who have accessibility concerns or whose only alternative is taking up a care space, alongside a handful of other people in exceptional circumstances, have been offered spaces since.
Shelter Scotland’s assistant director of communications and advocacy, Gordon Llewellyn-MacRae, said: “It is clear that work to end the housing emergency in Edinburgh and ensure the council operates lawfully will take many months.
“That is why it is important that elected members and council officers maintain public confidence in how decisions are made by demonstrating the highest standards of transparency and evidence gathering.
“In our view the suspension of choice-based lettings should not be extended until March 2027 because key information to inform the public about how decisions will be made is missing at present.”
He added that any interim allocations policy drafted by council officers should show how priority is given to those being housed, how equalities concerns are being managed and what evidence would allow choice-based lettings be re-opened earlier than March 2027.
Mr Llewellyn-MacRae also said that ‘it would not be appropriate’ to remove democratic oversight of allocations policy until those changes were in place.
In August, the city’s housing officers asked for an extension to March 2027, but councillors struck them back, calling the proposal ‘stark’ and ‘a shock’.
They instead signed off on an extension to December of this year, and asked that monthly updates be given to the city’s housing committee on progress made during the suspension.
A report before next week’s housing committee meeting states that scale of the homelessness crisis is still stark – however, officers say the suspension is working.
They argue that an extension would ensure almost 400 less households lived in unsuitable housing by that time.
Labour councillor and housing convener Tim Pogson said: “We’ve been clear that priority is being given to homeless households and those living in unsuitable temporary accommodation and are unclear why a further allocations policy would be needed to demonstrate this.
“Officers have regularly reported on progress in allocating properties, and we’re pleased to note that since April 25 over 500 council properties have been allocated to homeless households.
“This is a core aspect of Edinburgh’s Housing Emergency Action Plan that Shelter support, and also of the Scottish Government’s Housing Emergency Action Plan.”
He added that the policy had been taken on a ‘risk-based approach’, and reiterated that the goal of the housing freeze was to ensure Edinburgh was in compliance with its duty to house homeless people in the capital.
Figures set to go before the committee say that 50.4% of households presenting as homeless in October could not be accommodated by the council – down from 58.6% in April.
Some 271 households could not be accommodated by the council in October, while data for November 10 showed that 99 people were known to be sleeping rough in the capital.
The report also stated that 978 households were in unsuitable accommodation as of November 14, including 180 households with young people and 18 families with children.
April’s suspension was brought on in response to the dual pressures of a homelessness crisis and the need to move temporary accommodation tenants out of unlicensed HMOs.
It is meant to help resolve a situation where the council is in breach of the law both due to its HMO use and the high numbers of homeless households it fails to accommodate.
Council staff say that hundreds of beds have been able to be put towards temporary accommodation during the suspension, through both changes of use and new purchases.
Some 64 beds were freed up by the council’s purchase of the ELS House student flats block in Gorgie, as well as around 250 rental homes the council has been able to procure.
Councillors will consider the report at the next meeting of the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee on Tuesday, December 2, which you can view here.
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