An endless housing emergency - John McLellan

Perhaps the Scottish Government’s planning reporters had a hotline to the European Court of Human Rights, but their examination of City of Edinburgh Council’s City Plan 2030 released last Friday has climate change written right through it like Blackpool rock.

A map from City Plan 2030 showing potential sites for housing development.

The council planners must be thrilled their development blueprint for the next decade has been rubber-stamped, despite a raft of serious objections, and the blunt truth is it will not solve the housing crisis.

Rather than accept plans to force businesses to make way for houses are largely pie-in-the sky, the reporters have dodged the issue. “It is acknowledged that the spatial strategy may require higher levels of intervention given the council relies on a number of sites with current occupiers and sometimes multiple owners,” they say, which can only mean compulsory purchase. But the council is skint.

“It is acknowledged that not all the sites identified for housing-led mixed-use development may come forward in the plan period,” they say, which means demand cannot be met. And that’s over 6,000 of the houses they hope can be built by 2034.

Most reliable calculations estimate demand to be for well over 40,000 homes, but this means a potential shortfall of around 10,000, even before factors like labour supply and construction costs are considered.

It’s all very well for senior officers to feel smug that what passes for a plan to address Edinburgh’s need has been given the Scottish Government seal of approval, but if councillors wonder why their housing emergency seems endless, they need only look at City Plan 2030.