MORE than 2,900 households in Edinburgh were assessed as homeless last year – an increase of nearly 10% on the previous period, according to a new council report.
This has led to concerns about the demands being placed on council housing officers, with “high turnover of staff” and “high caseloads” reported as serious concerns by trade unions.
This is despite a rise in the supply of suitable temporary accommodation, with 765 properties made available by the council, and a freeze in council housing allocations.
Despite these challenges and increased demands, however, the council is forecast to leave around £2.95m in its housing budget unspent.
The report, prepared by council officers for the Housing, Homelessness, and Fair Work Committee next week, has laid bare the challenges facing Edinburgh housing officers amid an ongoing housing crisis.
As of December 2025, there were 6,271 households in temporary accommodation, an increase of around 287% from April 2024.
Through measures such as the council housing allocation freeze, housing officers were able to make more properties available for use by homeless people in the capital.
This was offset, however, by a reduction in the number of people leaving temporary accommodation for more suitable permanent housing.
From April to December 2024 there were just over 2,100 households reported to have left temporary accommodation, but around 1,900 for the same period in 2025.
The council suspended the new council property allocations in April and began assessing them for allocation only for households urgently in need of permanent accommodation or for temporary accommodation.
This is in the expectation that a new, revised housing allocation policy will be drawn up before March 2027.
878 properties were transferred for allocation by housing officers, of which 504 ended up being used as temporary accommodation and the rest for direct lets to households in urgent need of permanent accommodation.
But, in December 2025 alone, officers state that there were “646 instances of a failure to accommodate, which related to 222 households”.
The report continues: “This is an increase of 30 instances, but a decrease of 27 households from November 2025.
“The failures accounted for 59% of temporary accommodation requests.”
The sharp increase in demand had its knock-on effects on the council’s housing officers as well, with stress, turnover of staff and difficult workloads all highlighted as issues.
A meeting of the Unite trade union took place on 1 December 2025, and conditions among members working as housing officers were assessed.
The report details some of the issues raised by Unite and housing officers at this meeting: “The service is aware that the role of a housing officer is demanding with various tasks requiring completion and monitoring.
“The service recognise that staff may find the workload and dealing with customers who are often in crisis, (who we can often not meet their expectations [sic]) difficult to manage, resulting in high turnover.
“Staff who have shown that they thrive in this kind of environment have normally gone on to positions with more responsibility and a higher grade.”
On high caseloads, officers added: “Work is ongoing with a commitment to increase the number of housing officers within the team and therefore reducing the number of cases per officers and days on duty.
“There was acknowledgement that there has already been a reduction in the number of cases per housing officer.
“This includes additional staff available in the office to support staff when on duty and interviewing customers.”
The report also outlined further issues with communication and described some measures, such as new CCTV arrangements, new staffing models, and de-escalation training, which are under consideration.
The council’s stated strategic objective, approved in February last year, is: “Where temporary accommodation is required, it will meet the needs of the household.”
The council’s homelessness budget was increased by £12.5m in 2025/26 to reflect the expected increase in costs for accommodating homeless households.
A report to the Finance and Resources Committee in January 2026 forecasted an underspend of £2.95m for this budget, however.
Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener, Councillor Tim Pogson, said: “Protecting vulnerable people remains our key priority.
“Despite significant pressures on Edinburgh’s housing service, we continue to work proactively to reduce homelessness across the city.
“Alongside partner agencies, such as Streetwork, we provide year-round street-based outreach services to make sure people can access support when they need it most.
“Edinburgh faces unique and growing challenges.
“It has the fastest growing population and the lowest amount of social housing per head of population in Scotland with only 14% social housing compared to a national average of 23%.
“Private rented housing costs are also the highest in Scotland. These pressures led to Edinburgh becoming the first city in Scotland to declare a housing emergency two years ago reflecting the scale of demand on the local housing market.
“Preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place and helping tenants to avoid reaching crisis point is central to our approach.
“Through targeted homelessness prevention services, we are helping people remain in their homes wherever possible.
As part of the council’s budget-setting process, discussions for which will take place throughout February, officers are proposing that this amount is used to create a £6m contingency fund for “demand-led homelessness pressures in 2026/27 and future years”.
In terms of the suspension of council housing allocations, the council could decide to end the suspension and proceed with a consultation on an interim policy until a full allocations policy is agreed.
Alternatively, the council could decide to continue with the suspension, focusing resources on developing a new allocations policy and circumventing the need for an interim policy.
Pogson added: “Last year, we helped prevent homelessness for 2,622 households under the umbrella of the Local Housing Strategy, the city’s comprehensive strategy to tackle and eradicate homelessness.”
“Edinburgh’s housing budget is fully committed as part of the plans to address Edinburgh’s Housing Emergency.
“Capital budgets being underspent is not unusual and there are many complex factors at play here, not least market pressures and availability of housing and accommodation.
“We’re also duty bound to provide good value for all taxpayer’s money.
“I want to reassure residents that these funds will still be used on housing and homelessness.”
According to figures from Shelter Scotland, a homelessness charity, there were 34,067 households assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness in Scotland in 2024/25, a slight increase on the year previous.
