Edinburgh’s freeze on council housing allocations will now run until at least February 2026.
Council officers say they have not spent almost £3 million which is intended for tackling homelessness in the capital.
Councillors made the decision at Tuesday’s housing committee meeting, where concerns were also raised about the council possibly breaching the law due to overcrowding.
Officers have now been directed to assemble a new interim allocations policy that helps deal with a range of concerns raised over the suspension.
Housing Convener, Tim Pogson, said the council was failing at its legal responsibilities to the homeless and other groups at ‘the most basic of levels’.
A bid by council housing officers to extend the suspension to March 2027 was knocked back by councillors, with one describing it as a ‘hopeless thing to propose’.
During the meeting, councillors brought attention to the £2.83 million housing underspend, disclosed in a report before a finance committee last month, and asked what had caused it.
Housing and homelessness service director Derek McGowan said the underspend was due to persistent staff vacancies, alongside other factors.
The freeze was brought in during April last year to tackle the dual issues of Edinburgh’s housing crisis and the council using unlicensed HMOs to provide temporary accommodation.
Both the council’s failure to house people presenting as homeless and the city’s use of the unlicensed properties placed it in breach of its legal responsibilities.
Cllr Ben Parker asked whether the council was also at risk of breaching the law through the amount of overcrowding being experienced in temporary housing.
Mr McGowan replied some council-administered properties in the capital may meet the legal threshold for being overcrowded.
Director of Place, Gareth Barwell, added: “The only way we will solve this and give homes to people is to give them homes.”
Referencing discontent over the allocation, he added: “You need to be able to click on something and have a bit of hope that allows you to plan your life.
“For an organisation as big as a council, [an adverse risk appetite] is going to be very hard to move away from.
“But it’s possibly a debate to be having around whether that risk appetite needs to be changed if it’s not delivering everything we need.
“It’s hard for me, even on a professional basis, to argue that we are doing everything for everybody right now, because it’s a matter of fact we aren’t.”
Cllr Pogson said “hard progress had been made in difficult circumstances” by officers, but that more work was needed, referencing a deputation in the morning about overcrowding.
He continued: “We sadly acknowledge that we are turning people away even from a night in temporary accommodation, we’re not fulfilling those legal duties on the most basic of levels.
“There is no right decision, ‘oh yes, those are more deserving than that’. They are both clearly equally deserving.
“The fact of the matter is that there is currently not enough housing resource in the city of Edinburgh to meet our needs, statutory or otherwise.”
Councillors agreed a composite position on the suspension, which came in response to concerns that it was focused on complying with the law to the detriment of some of those housed by the council.
It requires that housing officers assemble an interim allocations policy in consultation with several outside organisations.
Officers will have to consider whether the interim policy could provide moves for those living in overcrowded properties and some other groups who currently cannot bid for housing.
But councillors acknowledged that freeing up additional space for moves may not be something officers were able to do.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
