Object to expensive purpose built student accommodation and build to rent flats at Dalton Scrapyard.
The planning appliction is now CLOSED. By working together we got 100 people to object. You can track its progress here.
You can read Living Rent's Compentent Objection here.
At the start of November Edinburgh City Council declared a housing emergency but the people of Leith have felt this crisis worsening for years. We desperately need more housing. The proposals for the Dalton Scrapyard will only profit from that need without ever hoping to meet it.
Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) and Build-to-rent (BTR) developments are exploitative to the people living in them and destructive to our communities. They charge higher rents, offer fewer rights and are often of a significantly lower standard than other homes. We all want to see the site developed into something that betters our community, which is exactly why this proposal needs to get scrapped.
WE NEED
Social rents not Build-To-Rent
The lack of social housing in Edinburgh is a major driver of homelessness, trapping whole families in precarious accommodation for months at the council’s expense. Social housing provides a vital anchor to keep rents down and quality up across the market. To not include social housing in this development would be a massive missed opportunity.
Homes not halls
Edinburgh’s students are a welcome part of our community, and they deserve better than to pay through the nose for poor quality accommodation. Developers make millions building PBSA, which is exempt from rent caps, eviction bans and certain building standards. Students don’t want it and locals don’t want it.
Regular flats can provide housing for students. But student accommodation is not accessible to the majority of the population. Developers promise that these student halls will ease demand for regular rentals, but PBSAs have sprung up in their dozens in recent years - and our rent has skyrocketed anyway!
A public square not a walled garden
The Council’s “greenspace requirement” for this development is met by two private courtyards, one for the students and one for the tenants. The only benefit they will provide to the wider community is, in the words of the developers, that we will be able to “look at it”. The people of Leith deserve better. Leith is crying out for accessible public space, and we should demand it be designed into every development.
The council has declared a housing emergency, they need to act like it.
HOMES FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT!
Read more about the development here
