Around 6,700 new affordable homes could be built in Edinburgh over the next five years if plans set out in the City of Edinburgh Council's Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) are taken forward.

The SHIP estimates that additional investment of approximately £507m would enable up to 6,700 new homes to be approved between 2009 and 2014.

This is line with the Council's long-term housing strategy to meet the need for 12,000 new affordable homes over ten years. The Council predicts that the effects of the credit crisis will bring about an even greater demand for rented housing in the city.

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The plan also describes how falling land values may help make more land available for new affordable housing in Edinburgh, enabling the Council and housing associations to purchase more sites on which to build new homes.

Councillor Paul Edie, Housing Convener, said: "It is clearer than ever that we and our partners could be building significantly more badly-needed affordable homes in Edinburgh.

"We are confident that we could approve 6,700 new affordable homes over five years if we can secure the necessary funding from the Scottish Government. Currently, we are looking at a shortfall of 12,000 affordable homes over ten years, so this strategy would go some way towards addressing this. However, we do anticipate that this 12,000 figure may need to be revised upwards in the next few months once the city's housing needs have been reassessed. The ongoing credit crisis has certainly worsened the city's affordable housing shortage."

The SHIP report will be considered by the Council's Health, Social Care and Housing Committee on 7 October 2008. The Council will put the SHIP out for consultation following this meeting, in advance of its submission to the Scottish Government in November.

(GK/JM)