Huge boost to affordable housing in Edinburgh

Dunedin Canmore is bringing a major boost to affordable housing across Edinburgh – after completing 174 new homes in four communities.

Liberton tenants move into Dunedin Canmore new-build

The social landlord, part of Wheatley Group, has completed 110 new, energy-efficient houses and flats for social rent and another 64 for mid-market rental.

Construction work on the four sites was completed after coronavirus restrictions were lifted in June by the Scottish Government.

Claire Scott, 42, moved into a three-bedroom home in Lang Loan in Liberton with husband Eric and children Jamie, 18, Elle, 13, and two-year-old Poppy.

Claire, a Customer Experience host for a railway company, said: “Our new house is amazing. The kitchen is my favourite room as it’s at the heart of the family. We have a big dining table and we can all sit around the table each night.

“We’d been looking to move for about two years as our old house was getting too small for us. We needed more space.

“We got offered the home back in February and we were all packed up and ready to move at the end of March – but then coronavirus meant we couldn’t move. At the beginning of July we got the news we could move again and everybody was so happy.”

Sixty homes – 19 for mid-market rent in Morrison Crescent in Haymarket and 41 for social rent in Beaverbank Place, Canonmills – were built by contractor CCG (Scotland) Ltd.

The new homes at Lang Loan – 31 for social rent and 14 for mid-market – and 38 properties for social rent and 31 for mid-market in the Greendykes area in the south east of the city were built by Persimmon.

The 174 new homes were part-funded by £10.4m grant from the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government.

Dunedin Canmore Chair Mary Mulligan said: “We are delighted to complete work on new, high-quality, affordable homes in the capital. The homes are designed to be energy efficient, which helps keep fuel bills down, and are located in desirable communities where people will be very happy to live.”

David Fletcher, Wheatley Group Director of Development, said: “We’re thrilled to work with our partners at the City of Edinburgh Council to deliver four outstanding developments and to further increase the supply of affordable homes across Edinburgh.”

Councillor Kate Campbell, Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener at Edinburgh City Council, added: “These homes are desperately needed and will provide a vital boost to our supply of affordable homes. The developments themselves are really impressive, offering quality, safe and warm homes with great levels of energy efficiency to further reduce people’s cost of living and contribute towards our net zero carbon goals.

"Each development forms part of our ambitious Council plan to accelerate 20,000 new homes for Edinburgh and address the acute affordable housing shortage the city has faced for far too long. Despite the impact the pandemic has had on construction, we’re seeing new homes completing and we’ve approved a record number of affordable new homes for site start. It is fantastic to see our housing plan in action and to see these new tenants move in.”

Dunedin Canmore, as part of Wheatley, is committed to increasing the number of affordable homes in support of the Scottish Government’s More Homes agenda. The housing association has now built 463 new homes in the last two years in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Pictured above: Claire Scott (left) and daughter Poppy are joined by Dunedin Canmore’s Head of Housing Alex Lamb in the garden at the Lang Loan homes in Liberton.

Pictured below: Claire and Poppy (right) and joined by Dunedin Canmore's Alex Lamb in the new kitchen.

Liberton tenants in new kitchen

Wednesday, August 26, 2020