This year, Lochend members took the council to task over their unfair property buy-back policy that was seeing private tenants face eviction. By working together, they won a policy change that gives private tenants more security and a right to remain in their home when their landlord decides to sell back to the council.
The Issue
Edinburgh City Council's Mixed Tenure Improvement Service - a retrofitting and building improvement project - is being carried out in housing schemes across the city. It's meant to be a way to maintain the long neglected buildings and improve energy efficiency. The work is desperately needed, and residents in Lochend were eager to see the work come to their area. However, it didn't take long for them to realise that the project, as it stood, could leave people in mountains of debt, uproot them from their homes or not even happen for buildings were residents were forced with no option but to vote against it to avoid the cost. Homeowners, council tenants and private tenants realised that their strongest bet of changing the service for the better was to work together.
Consolidating tenures in housing blocks makes carrying out repairs easier. Edinburgh council wants to buy back flats where they already own the majority in a block. In these cases, homeowners and landlords have an option to sell their property to the council at a reduced selling price. Owner-occupiers have always been able to choose to remain in the property and be given a Scottish Secure Tenancy (meaning they become a council tenant). However, when buying from landlords the council required the property to be empty. This means that landlords wishing to take this option, would have to evict their tenants to do so.
The pilot in Wester Hailes saw 38 households lose their tenancy when landlords decided to sell the flat back to the council. In Oxgangs, a similar retrofitting project saw one of our members, Sarah, facing eviction and the threat of having to uproot her children from the area. Through her efforts, supported by the union memebrs in Lochend, she was given a secure tenancy in a more appropriate flat. In Lochend, members Javi and Loyda were served a notice to quit because their landlord did not want to pay for the cost of the work and had therefore decided to sell back to the council. The stress was unimaginable.
In the middle of a housing crisis, with rents spiraling out of control, people living in some of the worst off areas of the city were being expected to leave their homes.
Faced with the urgency of work beginning and the potential of eviction notices being issued, in June, Lochend members voted for their campaign to be 'Insulate Lochend Fairly'. One of their demands is to allow private tenants the option of remaining in their home when their landlord decides to sell back to the council. Together, they made a plan to win.
How we won
After our action in August where members gathered outside city chambers and Aga gave a powerful deputation to the housing committee, we set a negotiation with the council to discuss MTIS, focusing on our demand to protect private tenants.
Members rally outside City Chambers in August calling for them to take a Just Transition approach to their MTIS work more seriously
In the meantime, Loyda and Javi were served an eviction notice. Members rallied around them to attend the local drop in session at The Ripple Project and ask officers about what options they have. Seeing people in the community united in defence of one another showed the council that their choices would not go unnoticed.
At the negotiation with Jane Meagher, Convener of the Housing Committee, Javi gave an impassioned argument that although it was not the council who had handed him the eviction notice, it was their policy that drove it. The council was responsible for the stress he was facing, and they had the power to make sure this didn't happen to more tenants. While the councillors and council officers initially refused this responsibility, Javi and union members pushed them until they couldn't wriggle away.
At the following week's committee, 1st October 2024, councillors voted to extend the acquisitions policy to the private rental sector, recognising tenants right to having a more secure tenancy and remain in their community.
Members Erin (homeowner), Javi (private tenant), Claire (council tenant and Living Rent Lochend Chair) and Simon (homeowner) with Niamh (Lochend branch organiser) outside City Chambers ahead of their negotiation with Convener of the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee, Jane Meagher.
The fight continues
Unfortunately, this win came too late for Javi and Loyda and they were not able to remain in their home. The council offers a lower sale price for a tenanted property. In practice, this means landlords are still being given incentive to evict their tenants. This reaffirms the need for the council to take their blinkers off and see that their actions have consequences for tenants and the state of housing across Edinburgh.
Having well maintained, insulated, warm homes will be essential in our transition to a more environmentally friendly future. For a truly just transition, public financing needs to be leveraged more effectively. The demands for Insulate Lochend Fairly account for this, and our members continue to push for fairer funding and financing of the scheme to protect homeowners from debt, allow more blocks to vote for it to go ahead and to give private tenants the most chance to remaining in their home if they choose.
