IT has been revealed that breaches of legal housing regulations in Edinburgh have nearly doubled in the past year.
Reports have been made that violations of laws surrounding homeless children and pregnant mothers have quadrupled in Scotland as a whole.
This comes amid concerns that local authorities have been continually breaching housing regulations overseen by the Scottish Housing Regulator.
Campaigners have urged Edinburgh City Council to consider the rights of homeless people, and for the regulator to take tougher action against councils who break the law.
As revealed by The Herald, cases of Edinburgh City Council breaching housing laws have almost doubled, going from 570 to a huge 1,015 in the past year.
In Scotland as a whole, 7,545 breaches were recorded, which is a rise from 2,000 between April and September 2023.
Most of the breaches occurred in Glasgow, which had over 6,000 cases, with nine out of 32 local Scottish authorities admitting to breaking the law in the most recent six month period.
This comes after housing charity Shelter Scotland stated they had “lost confidence” in Edinburgh City Council who, last year voted to suspend lifeline housing rights until March 2028.
The council responded by saying that the decision was not made and that allegations were untrue.
Scottish Green Councillor Ben Parker said in a council meeting last week: “This is a serious matter.
“It’s alarming for a leading charity to state that they have lost confidence in the leadership of the council, and it is unprecedented for them to demand that Scottish ministers and the housing regulator intervene against the council and decision of the committee.
He went on: “Despite amendments to the motion today trying to rewrite the history book and absolve individual councillors and parties of their role in this mess, we have to take seriously this intervention by one of our key sector partners.
“And we also have to take ownership of how damaging this has been. I feel ashamed to be part of it as a member of that committee, and I didn’t even vote for the agreed position
He added: “When we declared the housing emergency, we said that we would prioritise a rights-based approach in our response.
“The decision of some councillors in December undermines that declaration and it makes a mockery of our responsibilities to homeless people in the city.
“The fallout from this decision, of alienating Scotland’s leading housing charity, is the opposite of where this council should be. The council and the housing committee need to come forward and set out how we make this right.”
Following the meeting, the council has not only noted the role of Shelter as a campaign organisation, but have said that they are “an organisation committed to preventing
homelessness, and providing accommodation to those who do present as homeless, in
accordance with statutory obligations.”
They also state: “that the increase in homeless presentations, many of which are not
preventable, is putting pressure on a Council already creaking under the strain of finding
homes for over 5,200 households currently in temporary accomodation”.
Recent statistics have shown that the number of children living in temporary accommodation in Scotland is at its highest level in 23 years.
