Developers accused of cutting back on affordable homes

And campaigners said it was just the latest example of builders failing to deliver much-needed housing for people on low incomes.

Since 2001, when Edinburgh introduced rules requiring a proportion of affordable homes to be included in most developments, only 200 of the 4500 given consent have been built.

A decision by councillors on amended proposals for the latest phase of the Quartermile development has been postponed until next week because of controversial plans to demolish the B-listed 19th-century Red Home building in the heart of the site.

But today Alistair Cant, director of Lister Housing Co-operative, which has property next door to the site, said the latest proposals also included a reduction in the proportion of affordable housing to be provided.

He said the council and the developers had agreed 18 per cent of the housing in the scheme should be affordable, but as the total number of proposed flats had increased, the affordable element had shrunk.

Mr Cant said under the agreement with the council, the developer's latest plans should mean 192 affordable homes, but the actual number it was proposing was just 171.

He said: "The focus in discussion of the amended plans has been on whether the Red Home should be preserved and the issue of affordable housing for Edinburgh has got lost.

"But the way house prices are going, more and more ordinary people are being priced out of living in Edinburgh. This site is very central - you would not need a car to live here - and it's crucial for people in housing need."

And he claimed there were ways of accommodating the 21 extra homes on what was a very large site.

Edinburgh Green campaigner and housing expert Gavin Corbett said the Capital was recently shown to have the biggest shortfall of affordable homes in Scotland.

He said the city council was seen as a trailblazer in requiring developers to provide a set proportion of affordable houses as part of any scheme.

But he said: "The trouble is that it is hard to get it to work effectively. Some developers are signed up to the idea and are enthusiastic partners of housing associations in doing so.

"Others have to be dragged kicking and screaming into recognising that they should deviate from their core business of providing big homes for well-off people and will do all they can to wriggle off the hook of the requirement to provide affordable homes.

"There is no doubt that, privately, some developers are hoping that political change in Edinburgh next May might be an opportunity to dilute or even scrap the policy.

"In the meantime, of course, they will stall and do all they can to avoid the commitment."

City council housing leader Sheila Gilmore said sites with planning consent for housing often changed hands several times, delaying the start of any construction.

But she said she was optimistic that many of the 4500 homes given permission would become a reality over the next five years.

She said: "Edinburgh needs to build 12,000 affordable homes in the next ten years to cope with the growth of the city's population and tackle homelessness."

Quartermile developers Gladedale Capital said it could not meet the 18 per cent requirement in relation to one part of the site, the A-listed surgical building because it would be "extremely difficult" to incorporate affordable housing there. Instead it was making a financial contribution in lieu of the 21 homes.

A spokeswoman said: "All parties are in agreement that this is the most beneficial approach."