The Scottish Government has confirmed an additional £40 million will be awarded to councils in Scotland to ease the pressure on temporary accommodation.
Edinburgh is just one of those local authorities but it will receive £14.882 million from the government.
This funding was already announced in April of this year. The government says it has now allocated nearly £600 million to support the supply of affordable housing in the country and a further £40 million will be allocated next year.
The money will be used to buy properties to help reduce the number of families in temporary accommodation or, where appropriate, to bring long term voids back into use.
Housing Minister Paul McLennan said: “The delivery of affordable homes is the foundation of family life and is fundamental to how we achieve our priorities of eradicating child poverty and growing the economy.
“The key to tackling homelessness and reducing the time spent by families in temporary accommodation is to deliver more affordable homes.
“We have already supported councils to purchase almost 1,500 properties in 2023-24 for use as affordable homes. However, we must do more and, by committing £40m this year, we are accelerating that work.
“This money will help councils provide a warm, safe place that families can call home again.”
Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener on The City of Edinburgh Council, Jane Meagher, said: “I’m glad that the Scottish Government has recognised the challenges local authorities are facing. Whilst I welcome the additional funding allocated over the next 2 years, it’s nowhere near enough to meet the scale of the problem and it comes after The Scottish Government slashed funding for affordable housing.
“As set out in our annual update to government, our Strategic Housing Investment Plan, which aims to increase affordable housing supply, requires at least an additional £665 million in grant funding. Without it, we’ll be unable to deliver the potential development pipeline over a 5-year period.
“It’s clear we need a concerted and co-ordinated response to our housing emergency, and my thanks go to our partners who have shown support from the day we declared it. It gives me great confidence that we can work together to improve the situation, but we can’t do it alone. Every single person deserves a suitable, safe, and affordable place to call home, and we will continue to fight for fairer funding and to demand urgent and united action.”
In March 2024 Edinburgh council published a Strategic Plan for dealing with the Housing Emergency which you can read here.
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