The Communist Party of Britain candidate in Southside/Newington has said that council housing is his top priority in the upcoming cy-ection on 3 September.
Richard Shillcock, the Communist Party of Britain candidate for the Southside/Newington ward, has said today that “tackling the city’s housing crisis through municipal house building” will be a core priority of the Communist Party campaign for the upcoming City of Edinburgh Council by-elections on 3 September 2026.
Shillcock emphasised that the current market-driven approach has failed local residents, arguing that a massive return to publicly owned housing is the only viable solution.
“Edinburgh has a housing crisis and there is only one answer to it—build council houses,”
The Communist Party campaign outline focuses heavily on local job creation and public investment, linking a housing strategy directly to local economic development and skills training.
Mr Shillcock added: “We need the Council to build, own, maintain, and administer council housing and not leave such an important issue to the free market.
“We need to employ council staff and invest in a new generation of apprentices to learn the skills required to build and maintain the highest quality council housing. Large-scale council house building was the best answer to the postwar housing crisis. It worked. Since then, turning homes into commodities in a market has failed us.”
Addressing potential concerns regarding budgets, Mr Shillcock pointed to historical precedents and called for a major shift in public spending priorities away from military conflict and toward domestic infrastructure.
“If the money could be found in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, it can be found now.
“The Communist Party would spend on homes for people, not endless warfare.”
Richard Shillcock is standing alongside fellow Communist candidate Peter Olech, who is standing for election in the Portobello/Craigmillar ward, on a platform of peace, public ownership, tax justice and workers’ rights.
