Fact check: Are homeless people in Edinburgh being thrown out to make way for Taylor Swift fans?

Are Swifties pushing homeless people in Edinburgh out of temporary accommodation?

Shelter Scotland says some of the homeless people it supports in Edinburgh have been moved out to Glasgow, Aberdeen and even Newcastle to free up hotel rooms for Taylor Swift fans.

But Edinburgh City Council says it is “absolutely not” moving tenants out of temporary accommodation to make way for Swifties.

So what exactly is going on here?

The facts

We know Edinburgh is in the grip of a housing crisis.

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The council declared a housing emergency in November last year, and around 5,000 families go without a home to call their own every single night in the Scottish capital.

Edinburgh City Council has a legal obligation to offer emergency temporary accommodation to homeless people, and often this takes the form of hotel rooms. This emergency accommodation tends to be for a seven-day period and the council books it a week at a time.

Swift is playing at Murrayfield Stadium from June 7 to 9, and almost 200,000 fans have tickets for the coveted gig - with fans needing somewhere to stay.

This means when next week rolls around and the council needs to book hotel rooms to use as emergency accommodation for homeless people, they can’t - those rooms are already booked up.

What does Shelter Scotland say?

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Shelter Scotland says this sort of scenario regularly happens during the Edinburgh Fringe, the Six Nations and during the Christmas and Hogmanay festivities, which pits homeless people against tourists in the fight for accommodation.

Gordon MacRae, assistant director at Shelter Scotland, said there were families they were working with who were having to go elsewhere next week.

“Those who come to us because they require emergency accommodation are usually put in a hotel for seven days, but now they’re being told to think about going to Newcastle or Aberdeen if they want a roof over their heads,” he told the BBC.

“That often means having to decide to give up their job or take children out of school. It is important to remember most homeless people only need a house, they don’t have multiple support needs.”

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Mr MacRae said the council was then unable to book hotel rooms for homeless people because “there is someone prepared to pay more for it than the council can afford”.

What does Edinburgh City Council say?

The council has told The Scotsman it is “absolutely not” moving tenants out of temporary accommodation to make way for Swifties - the problem is they can’t get anything booked themselves because the hotels are already full.

Councillor Jane Meagher, Edinburgh’s housing and homelessness convener, said: “It is a symptom of the housing emergency we face in Edinburgh that at times we must use tourist accommodation to house homeless households.

“We know it won’t be available year-round, particularly over the busy summer months, so we use it reluctantly as a last resort. We’re aware of the situation and are working with the affected households to find appropriate, alternative accommodation.”

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A council spokeswoman also confirmed that when they cannot find any hotel rooms, they need to move those families elsewhere. The spokeswoman said one household was sent to England for a week in the past year. 

They also confirmed the council books this type of accommodation one week at a time, but it is tricky if there is a big event on and the hotels are already fully booked.

Who is to blame?

Shelter Scotland is placing the blame squarely at the door of the Scottish Government.

In its 2024/25 budget, the Government cut £200 million from the affordable housing budget, although found a bit of extra money at the last minute to bring this figure down slightly. 

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Mr MacRae said: “The Scottish Government needs to step in and give local authorities the resources to ensure they uphold their legal duties. There are too many councils, including Edinburgh, that are acting unlawfully and there are no consequences.

“A housing emergency has been declared and that needs to be matched with funding for hard-pressed councils like Edinburgh.”

He said the council wanted to fix the problem, but could not because of the lack of funding. The Scottish Lib Dems also blame the Government.

While out campaigning in the capital, the party’s leader Alex Cole-Hamilton was asked whether the council or the government was to blame.

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The Edinburgh Western MSP said: “It’s the Government, because year-on-year the SNP has presided over the quiet death of local government funding.

“Local authorities have taken the hit for the economic mismanagement of the SNP who failed to grow the Scottish economy over 17 years.”

Mr Cole Hamilton said the Government’s rent control policy had “undermined” market confidence in house building, leading to £3.3 billion worth of developments being shelved because private equity firms and developers could not trust the Scottish housing market.

What’s the solution?

Aside from throwing more money at the problem, Mr Cole-Hamilton said he believed there were some measures the council could take to quickly increase the number of homes available in Edinburgh.

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He said there were around 1,500 council-owned homes that could not be rented out because minor maintenance needed done - but he believed it would not take much to do it.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “There are several issues right off the bat. First of all, it’s advanced planning around the festival and big concert events like Taylor Swift, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to the council.

“If they are block-booking rooms, they need to do it with that in mind, so they don’t have to turn people away, because it is a really traumatic thing to be in temporary accommodation.

“Secondly, on any given day there are 1,500 homes owned by the council which are empty, and they just need a little bit of work and they could be put back into service at a stroke. That would take a massive dent out of the demand on temporary accommodation.”

What does the Scottish Government say?

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Housing Minister Paul McLennan said: “I have been meeting with housing convenors across the country since last summer to discuss the housing pressures each area is facing.

“The Scottish Government is working with the City of Edinburgh Council and all local authorities to identify ways to reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation.

“Every council in Scotland has the legal duty to provide accommodation for anyone facing homelessness.

“In 2023 we provided an additional £2m in 2023/24 to the local authorities with the largest percentage increases in temporary accommodation.

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“Edinburgh received an allocation of £546,000 last year to support more effective housing stock management activity.

“Increasing housing stock is key to reducing the use of temporary accommodation.

“We have delivered more than 128,000 affordable homes since April 2007, over 90,000 of which were for social rent - and we will invest nearly £600m in affordable housing in 2024/25.

“This includes up to an additional £40m this financial year and an equivalent amount committed in 2025/26.”

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