Pause will allow officers to turn roughly 120 void homes into homes for homeless people as it seeks to regain compliance with legislation
Edinburgh Council will suspend its usual policy for allocating council-owned housing stock to prioritise void properties for use as temporary accommodation.
The motion to halt the policy was approved at a meeting of the council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee (HHFWC) on Friday 25 May. Councillors unanimously supported the action, which is due to last until at least 13 June 2025.
This means that council homes will no longer be advertised for let, and properties that become available to rent will either be used for temporary accommodation (TA) or allocated as permanent tenancies through a direct matching process.
While allocations are paused, officers will be working to bring around 120 properties a month into TA use, according to the council’s report.
The strategy seeks to remedy the authority’s non-compliance with its statutory duties to deliver appropriate housing and homelessness services.
In the last year, the council has failed to accommodate homeless people on 3,263 occasions, representing a 115% rise on 2023/24 figures and a breach of legislation. This is a 115 % rise on the 2023/24 figures.
>>See also: Spotlight on Scotland’s social housing sector
>>See also: Number of households with children in temporary accommodation reaches record high
It said: “This escalating breach of the Housing Scotland Act 1987 (as amended) represents legislative compliance risk that does not comply with the council’s risk appetite statement.”
As of 31 March, the council was providing unsuitable temporary accomodation to 970 households.
It said: ”Despite this compliance risk reducing to 970 from a peak of 1,544 in September 2024, this continues to represent a breach of legislative duty and therefore does not comply with the council’s risk appetite statement.”
Households with acute medical needs and those awaiting discharge from hospital will continue to be allocated homes under the new policy.
Alison Watson, director of homelessness charity Shelter Scotland, welcomed the emergency plan but warned that it is not a long-term solution, urging the local authority to clarify next steps to ensure that people are not housed in TA indefinitely.
She said: “The council is facing an impossible task without enough homes or resources. This situation has not emerged overnight; it is the result of decades of underinvestment in social housing and a failure to provide councils with the tools they need to fulfil their legal duties.
“However, this is not a long-term solution. Edinburgh’s housing emergency cannot be solved by crisis measures alone. We urgently need the Scottish Government to do more to support City of Edinburgh Council to meet all its legal duties and to ensure everyone has a safe, secure and affordable home.”
Other variations of the proposed recommendation included suspending non-emergency repairs to council houses except for disabled households and delivering the programme for a time limited period.
In November 2023, the council declared a ’housing emergency’. A Housing Emergency Action Plan (HEAP) was approved by the HHFWC in February 2024.
Key actions in the HEAP included reducing the number of void council homes and the use of unsuitable accommodation for homeless households, as well as working with the Edinburgh Affordable Housing Partnership, EdIndex Board and third sector partners to reduce homelessness across Edinburgh.
The number of homeless households in Edinburgh was 7,866 at 31 March 2025, including 3,980 children and 2,820 young people aged 16-25.
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