Scottish council could scrap retrofit scheme after costs soar by over £30m in one year

Council officers concluded that of two potential retrofit options, neither is viable. They also said it is not viable to continue maintaining the flats.

Instead, officers back bulldozing the towers for a new build redevelopment and will formally recommend this at a meeting in December 2025.

Together, the buildings have 150 flats and 119 tenants, although 50 residents have already moved out and 68 could leave next year.

It comes as Edinburgh Council plans to upgrade more than 40 multi-storey blocks of flats to meet the latest energy efficiency requirements. The Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing requires social homes to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of Band B or “as energy-efficient as practically possible”.

The Scottish government is reviewing the standard to bring it in line with the UK government’s net zero targets, with interim guidance in place for landlords until a new one is established.

Edinburgh Council said it had prioritised Oxcars Court and Inchmickery Court for an “advanced retrofit”, meaning the blocks would have been brought up to EPC Band B, because a number of flats were uninhabitable due to issues linked to damp and mould, leaks and service failures.

But, as the report for the meeting makes clear, the project was hit by problems almost from the start.

Both buildings suffer “extensive heat loss” because their construction involves concrete support columns and open-access galleries exposed to outside elements.

The first designs to retrofit the blocks in 2022 used archive information and relied on assumptions about the buildings that did not bear out on inspection.

“The lack of accurate information affected the ability of the sub-contractors to fully conclude their designs and introduced an element of uncertainty and risk to the design solution,” officials said.

The council also had only a limited number of contractors it could use and picked a route that shifted project risks on to contractors, which “compounded the problem”.

Forecasts rose from £51m in 2024 to market testing at £85m in March 2025, although the report noted that because of the “extremely limited number of tender returns, it was not possible to evidence competitive tendering”.

The officers explained: “There is no other way of dealing with this thermal bridging issue and this was a major contributor to the conclusion that the costs to undertake the required design to meet the minimum targets are now more than the estimated costs to demolish and build a comparable number of new homes.”

Bulldozing the flats and building new homes on the site would not be cheap, however, with costs estimated at around £51m. Redevelopment would likely take four years and provide between 116 and 209 homes.

When asked by Inside Housing to comment, Edinburgh Council stressed that no decisions are being made at this point and it still needs to hear from tenants.

Lezley Marion Cameron, convener of the housing, homelessness and fair work committee at Edinburgh Council, said: “At this point, no decisions are being made by the housing, homelessness and fair work committee about the future of the blocks unless and until residents have had an opportunity to give us their feedback.

“Our priority is to provide residents with a safe, warm and comfortable home, and it is crucial we know and understand how the options being proposed by council officers could affect them.

“This feedback will inform a further report, which council officers will bring to the committee in December.”