The Scottish Government has announced the single biggest investment in housing in Edinburgh.

Following last week's Scottish Budget, which announced a £17 million increase to support the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes, a further £300 million has been committed by the Communities Secretary for 2021-22 to help Councils across the country address housing pressures.

In Edinburgh, the Council is on target for delivering 10,000 affordable new homes by 2022, with 1,900 homes complete or under construction. Ambitious plans have also been laid out to invest £2.5 billion in housing and build 20,000 affordable homes by 2027.

Responding to the announcement, Councillor Kate Campbell, Edinburgh's Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener, said: "We were expecting to receive around £45 million from the Scottish Government for social housing but today's commitment confirms this will in fact to rise to over £48 million.

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"This is the single biggest investment towards our housing on record for a starting budget and will support our own ambitious programme to deliver thousands of new and better homes for our residents.

"This announcement is to be welcomed and we will continue to work with the Scottish Government, locally and as a regional housing partnership, to secure as much grant funding as possible.

"We urgently need to keep building and delivering new homes to meet our city's unique housing pressures and we'll continue to prioritise and develop communities like Pennywell. We've recently invested £150 million towards creating a new school, medical practice and town centre in the area alongside mixed use housing. This includes 575 affordable new homes of which close to 200 are complete and have seen families move in."

The City of Edinburgh Council will meet this Friday to discuss spending plans for the city's budget, before it is agreed next week on 20 February.

(MH/JG)