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South-east Scottish councils form board for £10bn housing spend
City of Edinburgh Council and other south-east Scottish councils have formed a joint board to oversee plans to pump £10bn into housing in the region over the next 15 years.
The regional housing board, formed under the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal Joint Committee, will administer the total of £10bn that the six local authorities plan to spend on housing over the next 15 years.
Andrew Kerr, chief executive of City of Edinburgh Council, will chair the board, set up as part of the city region deal signed in August last year.
The deal includes £1.3bn of funding from the Scottish government, contributing towards 41,000 new homes, 21,000 jobs and skills improvements for 14,700 people.
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As part of this, the regional partners plan to increase their delivery of affordable housing and establish a housing company, Edinburgh Living, to deliver at least 1,500 homes at “mid-market rent and competitive market rent levels”.
The regional housing board will sit immediately underneath the joint committee established to make decisions for the city region.
It plans to oversee the acceleration of housebuilding on seven “strategic sites”, which meeting papers suggested have capacity for over 40,000 homes.
It will also deal with housing infrastructure delivery, land acquisition, an affordable housing programme and support for small and medium-sized builders.
The committee has approved a plan to provide construction skills training to people in the region through the Housing, Construction and Innovation Skills Gateway.
The scheme is worth £6m and will engage with schools, training programmes, upskilling and disadvantaged community groups to support entry to new jobs and support career development.
According to the committee, this scheme will also attempt to address the gender gap in employment in housing, construction and innovation.
Professor Sean Smith, director of sustainable construction at Edinburgh Napier University, who will lead the programme, said: “We will require to build 40% more homes in the next 20 years than we did in the 20 years prior to the recession. New infrastructure and innovation will be key to this growth and also new skills and job opportunities.”
