EDI helps swell city's coffers

EDI GROUP, the development wing of Edinburgh City Council, saw its pre-tax profit last year soar to £2.7 million, from just £768,000 the year before.

And the dramatic rise in earnings helped enable the company to pay a dividend of £6.15m to the council - an increase from the £750,000 dividend it paid for the previous year.

Over the first quarter of the current year, EDI has also funnelled a further £4m into the council's coffers, its accounts showed.

Chairman, Councillor Gordon MacKenzie, said the profit achieved by EDI last year was ahead of target and was "particularly gratifying". But because of what chief executive Ian Wall described as the "lumpiness" of the income flow from many of EDI's projects, profit was expected to drop off again during the current year.

Cllr MacKenzie said 2006 had been both a "challenging and satisfying year". In his report accompanying the accounts for the year to December 31, 2006 he said: "A pre-tax profit of £2.7m represents a significant improvement on last year's figure."

Turnover over the period dipped only slightly to £5.67m on 40 projects, from £5.72m on 47 projects the year before. The council had set EDI a target of £30m income last year but it surpassed that with a total of £41.5m after selling or refinancing assets.

The total included part of the £40m-plus received from the sale of the Morrison Street Goods Yard to developers Tiger. The rest is due to fall into next year's accounts due to the complexity of the deal and its tax implications, said Mr Wall. "We're quite proud that EDI was able to deliver for the city while at the same time continuing to grow the company," he added.

EDI was set up in 1988 to undertake the development of Edinburgh Park on the western fringes of the Capital, an area which has been a key driver of economic growth for Edinburgh.

Since then it has been involved in a number of projects and partnerships involving retail, commercial and parkland, and residential ventures.

Included among the key EDI achievements over the accounting period were the full letting of the first stage of the Pentad business park complex at the South Gyle - which at the time was the largest letting in west Edinburgh for three years. Cllr MacKenzie said that residential side of EDI's operations, which includes a joint venture with The Burrell Company (TBC) at Coalhill, in Leith, and at Bell's Mills in the Dean Village, remained "robust".

EDI, which employs 26 staff, was also appointed by the National Trust for Scotland to undertake the refurbishment and development of the 17th century Lamb's House - the former merchant's house considered to be Mary Queen of Scots' first residence in Scotland - at the Shore

Elsewhere, it is working with TBC on a mixed development at Fountainbridge and on a school and nursery project at Craigmillar in conjunction with PARC, the urban regeneration company set up by the council.