Leith branch wins PBSA campaign at Dalton Scrapyard - again!
For the past two years Leith members have been campaigning for better housing options in Leith and against unaffordable developments, with a recent win in the campaign at the national level!
The issue
Purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) developments are coming up more and more across Edinburgh. Although this accommodation claims to be for students, it is too expensive for the majority of students, and crucially it doesn't serve to address the housing crisis in Edinburgh. The numbers of people facing homelessness, in unsuitable temporary accommodation, and paying extortionate rents is increasing across the city, while we keep seeing unaffordable developments prioritised. Obviously communities need to take action.
Leith has seen the increase of PBSA in the area despite not having any universities or colleges in the area, yet nearly two-thirds of all Edinburgh PBSA bed spaces in planning are here. That’s over 6,000 beds out of 9,800 citywide. We desperately need more social housing and actually affordable housing rather than overpriced student flats that even students can't afford. These developments put a strain on local services such as transport and healthcare, isolate students from the rest of the community, and provide housing only for one group rather than a mixed group of residents. These developments benefit developers alone who are making obscene profits from students and take away scarce land that we could be using for housing to serve the whole community.
Often PBSA is turned into short term lets in summer as well exacerbating existing problems with short term lets in the city. We know that international student numbers are reducing therefore reducing the need for expensive PBSA in the city. Student homelessness and difficulty for students to find suitable accommodation is still an issue despite large amounts of PBSA developments across the city because they only serve to increase the profits of developers and squeeze the communities around them.
The Leith branch voted to fight against the Dalton scrapyard PBSA development in June 2023. This was the second PBSA campaign Living Rent had taken on in Edinburgh with the campaign against the development at the former Tynecastle High School won at a council level but ultimately ruled in favour by the Scottish Reporter.
How we won
Development campaigns can often be long and drawn out with several phases. There is both the timeline of the council’s planning process which is incredibly bureaucratic as well as a timeline for public engagement with the campaign. This campaign managed both successfully.
We mobilised around the period for consultation with over 100 responses endorsing our detailed considerations around the application as it went in. Objections to developments can only take into account ‘material considerations’ which includes: the height of the property, pollution, building size, the current City Plan; rather than provision for residential housing. We highlighted the impact this would have on strained local services like healthcare and parking. PBSA have lower standards than residential housing with the ability to have less green space, smaller flats and shared kitchens which make them challenging to convert to residential housing afterwards.
We had a really effective public engagement strategy in this campaign with big public events in 2024, we held lots of stalls, a vision day where we worked with others locally to create a vision of what we wanted the site to hold instead of unaffordable housing. Our key event was a successful town hall where councillors and a local MSP agreed to the campaign demands and to prioritise social housing over unaffordable lets as well as hosting contributions from other organisations and members with key questions.
In January 2025, two members gave a deputation to the council about the campaign as they decided on the application and we were successful - the application was refused! It was clear from our outreach that the local community wanted to see social housing in the site, not just luxury unaffordable flats.
However the campaign wasn’t over yet - developers have the right of appeal where communities don’t which is hugely unjust. The developers appealed to the Scottish Reporter. The decision was upheld and the community was listened to.
One of the challenges with a development and planning related campaign can simply be the length of the campaign - they often take years and can be frustrating for members along the way, this campaign was definitely lengthy but the effective public engagement drove the campaign towards the finish line.
The fight continues
We celebrate the success of this victory however we know that there is still work to do. The local community wants to see social and affordable housing in this site and a better option for the area. In Leith alone, there is at least two other large scale PBSAs either in planning with expectations that permission will be granted on Bangor Road and Manderston Street.
PBSA remains an issue in Edinburgh, not just in Leith but across the city. Two branches in Edinburgh voted to tackle a campaign around the City Plan 2040 to influence the PBSA guidance in the upcoming City Plan. If successful this will influence the direction of planning in the city for ten years so will have a huge material impact on future planning campaigns and cases.
It is clear Edinburgh needs a better solution - get active in your local branch to ensure communities are heard when it comes to planning.
