Friday July 31st 2026
Multi-storey blocks in Edinburgh
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
A tenants’ union has slammed figures which show more than 9,000 council housing applicants have been waiting for a home for over five years.
Data released under Freedom of Information legislation, first reported by the Edinburgh Evening News, further showed the waiting list stood at 31,589 ‘active’ entries, according to the most up-to-date information available.
The stark figures come as Edinburgh enters the 16th month of a near-total freeze on council housing allocations.
Gordon Maloney, chair of Living Rent Edinburgh, said the figures showed the council was ‘completely failing to act’.
He added: “Instead of concerted action, we have seen empty statements, a failure of leadership and more and more families left stuck on the social housing waiting list.
“Without more affordable housing, tenants will continue to be stuck in expensive, insecure, poor-quality housing whilst they are pushed deeper into poverty.”
He also said the Scottish Government needed to do more on supporting social housing ‘at every stage’, including funding new construction and stock buyback.
Council housing convener and Labour councillor Tim Pogson said that while ‘there is still much to do’, the council had made significant progress in the past year and that more work was underway to tackle the city’s housing crisis.
He added that 1,400 affordable homes were completed last year, 1,200 were presently under construction and 830 had plans approved.
And he pointed to the council’s £1.6bn commitment to invest in affordable homes in the next five years as evidence the council was serious about tackling the issue.
Meanwhile, a Scottish Government spokesperson said it had delivered 146,000 affordable homes across the country since 2007, with 104,000 going for social rent.
They added that they planned to build 110,000 more affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent, and that £4.9bn over the next four years would go to supporting around 36,000 affordable homes.
The spokesperson continued: “City of Edinburgh Council will receive £277m of this investment and we expect them to use this funding to help meet the needs of those seeking suitable housing.
“Social housing allocation waiting lists are open to anyone over the age of 16. Local authorities and housing associations are responsible for the allocation of social housing”.
Edinburgh is closing on a year and a half of a freeze on council house allocations, launched in an effort to free up stock for homeless households in need of temporary accommodation.
A very limited number of non-homeless households have been granted council housing in that time due to exceptional circumstances.
The freeze was brought on in April of last year as the city continued work to wind down its use of unlicensed HMOs for temporary accommodation, a practice which put it in breach of the law.
At present, it is in effect until March 2027, after councillors on the city’s housing committee agreed an extension in February this year as its expiry loomed.
Edinburgh and several other large local authorities began using unlicensed HMOs for temporary housing to cope with demand during the pandemic.
According to the data, of the 9,224 applications waiting over five years, 1,235 have turned down at least one offer of accommodation.
Some 5,545 applications have been waiting less than one year, while 5,521 have been waiting between one and two.
Meanwhile, 4,911 have been waiting two to three years, while 9,224 have been waiting three to five.
Cllr Pogson said: “Over the past year, since the latest version of the Housing Emergency Action Plan was approved in June 2025, we have begun to make real progress.
“We have taken significant steps to tackle the housing emergency including accelerating the turnaround of empty homes, suspending the allocations policy and investing in homelessness prevention services.
“While there is still much to do, the progress to date shows that sustained action, partnership working, and political commitment can make a real difference.
“We must continue to do so if Edinburgh is to ensure safe, secure housing for all its residents.”
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