Around 1,100 new homes will be built by City of Edinburgh Council if new proposals being developed get the go ahead. These will be the first Council homes to be built in nearly 20 years, and will be made up of housing for sale and rent.

These plans mark a major change in the city's housing strategy for tackling the shortage of affordable housing. The plans form part of the city's response to the credit crunch and will include help for homebuyers.

Under these plans homes would be built in Pennywell, North Sighthill and Gracemount and will be a major boost to the regeneration of each of these areas. Affordable housing would be subsidised by the surplus generated from housing for sale.

A report will be put to Councillors on the 12 August to seek approval to undertake a detailed feasibility study for building and managing these new Council homes. It is expected this study will be complete along with plans for the sites by March 2009.

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Councillor Paul Edie, Housing Convenor said: "I am really pleased to announce that we aim to build the first new council housing in Edinburgh for nearly 20 years.

"This is the first time in a generation that the Council has considered building homes which marks a major shift in strategy and defining Council housing in the 21st Century. I hope the people of Edinburgh will be reassured that their Council is responding to the obvious difficulties many of them face in finding a home.

"Councillor Norman Work, Chair of the Edinburgh Homelessness Forum said: "We are reinventing how Council housing is managed and making changes to tackle the housing crisis head-on. Most importantly we are providing Edinburgh with homes that are badly needed."

Betty Stevenson, Convenor of Edinburgh Tenants Federation, commented: "The Federation very much welcomes the prospect of building council housing in Edinburgh once again. This is something the Federation has sought for a very long time. In the present housing crisis new council housing is desperately needed. We look forward to learning the details about what would be involved in making this happen."

(GK/JM)