Thousands of households in Edinburgh face homelessness every night, and the council has a statutory duty to find suitable temporary accommodation for all.

Shelter Scotland has spoken out about the way this is accomplished – particularly in August when they claim that a “vital safety net” is removed due to the influx of visitors to the city using hotels and B&Bs which the council cannot then access.

As the city’s hospitality industry deals with the demand for beds for those attending the Fringe, the festivals and on top of that the Oasis concerts this month, the homelessness charity fears that there will be less room for those who are normally placed there. Shelter admits that The City of Edinburgh Council is not placing as many people in hotels as it previously did – and the council has also stopped placing anyone from the housing list in council homes meantime, but the problem of where to house people even temporarily remains a problem.

Shelter has issued a demand for The Scottish Government to step up to help with funding.

Shelter Scotland Director, Alison Watson said: “It’s welcome news that the City of Edinburgh Council is using hotels and B&Bs less frequently. However, it’s clear there is still a lot of work to be done – and no real sense of urgency. As tourists flood in, those on the sharp end of the housing emergency are at risk of having the safety net pulled away. 

“With tourists descending on Edinburgh, hotels are longer available for those experiencing homelessness when there is nothing else to offer. At the last count the Council failed to offer accommodation more than 1,000 times in six months at the last count. That led to the Council suspending council house bidding and using all available homes for people experiencing homelessness. But we know that even this isn’t enough. 
“We want to see an end to hotel use but with more and more people in need of a roof, and decades of underinvestment, they are a vital last resort. 

“With large-scale events happening more frequently – and the annual Fringe Festival drawing global crowds – we need immediate action. The City of Edinburgh Council needs a plan to deal with large scale events, but they also need support from the Scottish Government to address the root causes of the housing emergency and provide lasting stability for the Edinburgh community.

“We know the Council can’t solve can’t tackle this on its own. It must be given the resources needed to meet demand, including a greater share of Scottish Government funding. The Council must ensure everyone gets accommodation and nobody should be turned away every time a major event comes to town.”

Council response

Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener Lezley Marion Cameron said: “Today around 7,000 people in Edinburgh are without a permanent home, 5,000 of whom are in temporary accommodation. For some years now, Edinburgh has faced the highest number of homelessness presentations in Scotland, compounded by a chronic undersupply of housing, soaring construction costs, and insufficient funding to allow us to build the number of affordable homes that the city needs.

“August is always an extremely busy and exciting time for the city, and we make every effort to minimise disruption for those in temporary accommodation. Most of the accommodation we use is contracted and we will ensure that those people living in this accommodation ought not to be affected during Edinburgh’s summer festivals period. Furthermore, we are also working to reduce our reliance on hotels. Where we do use them, it is for emergencies only and will not be used long-term.

“Our evolving housing emergency action plan is delivering systematic change to reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation, and our work to increase affordable housing supply and provide vital support to those at risk of homelessness is starting to make a real difference.

“As part of our plan, the service is delivering an improved homeless prevention programme for residents at risk of becoming homeless and they’ve already had great success by preventing homelessness for 3,366 households since December 2023.

“I welcome the announcement of a new £4 million Homelessness Prevention Fund by the Housing Secretary this week and we will work to ensure Edinburgh gets its fair share, but the scale of investment needed here is far greater. Our officers and partners are working tirelessly to prevent homelessness and support those most at risk, but the pressures are not abating.

“We’re exploring everything within our power and ownership to maximise existing and create new opportunities to deliver much needed new housing by building on Council owned sites, acquiring site and purchasing homes directly. With over 763 homes already under construction and a further 5,700 planned on Council-owned land – including at least 2,660 affordable homes – we’re making headway. Through innovative partnerships and ‘off the shelf’ purchases, 328 homes have also already been added to the city’s housing stock with another 191 nearing completions. This clearly demonstrates that the Council is doing all it can within the powers and funding that we currently have available to us.

“Yet, the latest Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA3) shows that Edinburgh requires up to 52,000 new homes by 2040, with up to 35,000 of these being affordable, which we cannot deliver alone.

“Twenty-two months on from our declaration of a housing emergency, we are fast approaching its second anniversary. Its crystal clear that without more funding, the size and scale of the crisis will further intensify. The City of Edinburgh is doing everything we can. With significantly more funding, we could, and we would very much like to be, doing so much more.”

The City of Edinburgh Council’s housing emergency action plan.

The council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee meets on Tuesday to decided whether to continue suspending bidding for council homes. The papers for the meeting and access to the webcast are here.

Visitors to Edinburgh Festival Fringe make the city even busier in August each year.

Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related