Housing shortage own goal - John McLellan

​A motion to today’s Edinburgh Council meeting calls for the authority to declare a housing emergency, which is intriguing because one reason for the acute shortage is the lack of land in the council’s own development blueprint.

Members from Leith community councils say public consultation demonstrated a need for more affordable housing

​It’s notable because the motion comes from a Labour councillor whose colleagues were responsible for the plan, but as intriguing is the call for “a human rights-based approach to future work,” whatever that means.

Such gobbledygook just slows up the process by including ill-defined criteria when planning applications are considered, when the priority should be to get solid houses built with a minimum of fuss as quickly as possible.

Goodness knows the system is slow enough as it is, and it’s nothing to do with the myth of house builders delaying construction in so-called land banks.

Applications become bogged down for all kinds of reasons and no doubt the plan to build 15-storey blocks in Leith will attract more objections, not least because of the impact it might have on the skyline.

But height is a product of lack of space and the one thing missing from the housing emergency motion is a call for the council to start being honest about the impact of its own policies.

One other thing is missing. It makes no mention of developers or commercial builders. And if there is one way to ensure the shortage of homes is never addressed, it’s to shut out the companies which know how to build them. Maybe the local brothers and sisters didn’t get the business-friendly memo.