Scottish Government gives £500m Edinburgh development final approval

The Scottish Government has given planning permission to developer Murray Estates for the first £500m phase of a new neighbourhood in west Edinburgh.

Redheughs Village will deliver 1,350 homes, 330 affordable, and will be the first of five communities that the will lie across 675 acres and be called Edinburgh’s Garden District. Eventually the garden district is expected to provide 9,000 new homes, with 3,000 affordable. 

The Redheughs Village development will be south west of the Gogar roundabout and include a new neighbourhood centre, convenience retailing, local road improvements, and a 40-acre park for the community.

A planning application in principle was first submitted for it in September 2015 and approved at City of Edinburgh Council planning committee in June 2016. Scottish ministers called the decision in in 2016 but finally ratified planning permission in principle in April 2020. 

Following the agreement of a Section 75 agreement with the City of Edinburgh Council, Murray Estates was asked by the Scottish Government to retrospectively review any impacts of the recently published proposed local development plan on its earlier decision in October 2021. That process is now complete and planning permission has been granted with no further conditions.

David Murray, managing director of Murray Capital, parent company of Murray Estates, said: “We are pleased to have received final approval from the Scottish Government for the first phase of the Garden District after a long and comprehensive planning application process.

“The demand for sustainably-built family homes in close proximity to the capital is acute, and we look forward to commencing the work that will deliver 1,350 much-needed houses, supporting infrastructure and civic amenity.”

A development consortium West Town Edinburgh (WTE) announced at the end of last year it was working to develop a 7,000-home mixed-use scheme in west Edinburgh.