Living Rent Lochend - What we have achieved this year ahead of our Annual General Meeting 

Living Rent Lochend was launched as a branch in 2023, and since then we have been organised around issues that impact our community, this past year we have achieved a lot and it has shown us what we can achieve when we fight for improvements to our homes. 

Fighting for our members 

Rent increases
Over the past couple of months we have been standing by our members who have housing issues. Chloe, a member in Portobello received a £190 rent increase, after taking action this was reduced to £39. This win will save Chloe £1812 this year!! That's a huge amount of money that gets to stay in her account, not lining the pockets of portfolio landlords.

Repairs and Cost in temporary housing 
In Craigentinny, Sunday, Eseosa and their three young children live in temporary homelessness accommodation managed by C~urb PSL on behalf of Edinburgh council. Each month their landlord receives £1.2k for a 3 bed (council rent for a 3 bed is set at £630 approx), despite them living with damp, mould and countless other repairs for 3 years, putting theirs and their kids' health at risk, breaking standards set out in national legislation. 

As soon as we sent a letter action started, but it was after 15 of us showed up at the offices in Falkirk action really began. Now, a long list of repairs have been done, but we will continue to push for all repairs and a fair rent for our members. Noone deserves to live this way. 

Chloes celebration pizza in Porty and our action in Falkirk, supported by activists from Falkirk's trade union in communities. 

Save Marionville Fire Station 

Last year, The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said that they would shut down our local fire station. We have campaigned alongside the Fire Brigade Union and community councils to Save Marionville Station. As a whole community we stood firm and said that we would not accept cuts to our public services, when we do not have the evidence to back it up. We submitted a response to their consultation with 283 community responses that we gathered from local stalls in our community at shops and football games. We showed up in force at the public consultations and sent an open letter backed by MSPs. Earlier this year it was announced that the fire station was saved,!!.. but there are still important decisions to be made on refurbishment and rebuilding. 

We have seen the impact on fires at Arthur Seat due to increase temperatures as a result of climate change. Lochend often has house fires, where a quick response time is required. We also experience first hand the essential work our fire service does locally, including community engagement. When these resources are removed from working class communities are removed, they are often not returned. We will continue to fight to save the station!

Lochend Needs Safe Roads 

In Lochend our roads are unsafe and have been neglected over decades by our Edinburgh City Council. We have had multiple accidents, some involving children being hit by cars, people tripping in potholes, kinds feeling unsafe walking to school, speeding traffic and people feeling unable to safely cycle. Since November we have been campaigning for safer roads in our local areas including an area wide assessment; the installation of crossings at multiple roads; resurfacing of the roads to get rid of potholes; replacing road safety signs near schools and enforcement of a 20mph zone. 

We launched our campaign in November 2025 by hosting a community attended by St Andrews First Aid, Marrionville Fire Fighters and local businesses; held a poster competition with the local schools; gave deputation at Edinburgh Council where we read out our poem** (see below). In January 2026 we met with the transport lead, Carlyn Fraser, but sadly saw no follow up action. So we headed back to the streets to gather local testimonials by holding community outreach days at local schools throughout Spring 2026 with our inflatable zebra. This  August 2026 we held a public meeting where we invited councillors to present our demands. This secured a meeting in September 2026  with Carlyn Fraser Operations Manager (Citywide Road Coordination, Local Traffic &. Road Safety and her colleagues at Edinburgh Council. They agreed that modern improvements were needed in our area and agreed to the following. 

• ✅ That potholes across the area will be looked into and filled 

• ✅ That road safety signs near schools will be assessed and replaced

• ✅ That the areas we identified for road crossings will be assessed and that project work is already being considered for Sleigh Drive Roundabout. 

They confirmed if it wasn’t for our campaign, our area wouldn’t be considered for improvements. We need to ensure that the council puts money in their next budget for these roads, so we can make our community safer.

Please email your local councillors and Carlyn Fraser to ask for repairs:

Staff
[email protected] (SNP)
[email protected] (Labour) 
[email protected] (Green)
[email protected] (Conservative) 

Officers 
Carlyn Fraser, Head of Transport Team: [email protected]

You can 

• Report Potholes here: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/report-problem-road/report-road-pavement-problem 
• Request an area for a crossing here: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/road-safety/request-pedestrian-crossing

Insulate Lochend Fairly - Housing Justice is Climate Justice. 

We believe that warmer homes are necessary and that working class communities need to be at the centre of how this is achieved. It needs to be affordable for low income people, of high quality and benefit all council and private tenants.  For some the works have been a living nightmare: whether that has been poor quality repairs or life-long debt. Some of our members have recently received bills of £29k and some have been estimated over £40k.  In 2026 we have been continuing to campaign for fairer, cost effective insulation works that are too high a standard. We have achieved the following…

• ✅ Extended Tenanted Acquisition to Private Rentals, meaning the landlord does not have evict a private tenant 

• ✅ Reduce council repayment plan interest from 6% -> 0% for owner occupiers 

• ✅ Extra grant uplift for people who bought their hours as part of the LIFT scheme for low income people 

• ✅ Got the council to produce a report on the long term maintenance of mixed tenure blocks called ‘Planned Preventative Maintenance Report’ which will be published December 2026 

• ✅ To Review the Management Fee, which is currently set at 20% to reduce it for owners to the scheme is more affordable and fair 

• ✅ Piloting of a Joint Sign Off Process before works are completed

• ✅ In addition to this we also achieved more drop in sessions, cyclical reporting, the scheme is undergoing an external audit and we produced a report with the Just Transition Commission and have been in local, national and business news. 

We are clear: we need our homes to be improved but this should not push people into long term debt. Repairs should be good quality and the council should be held accountable to their decisions. It should ensure that all tenants that receive work, and aren’t prevented from this because their neighbours cannot afford it. 

You can watch our recent news article on STV Oct 2026 here 

Right now, we are now pushing the Scottish Government for additional funding for retrofitting projects across Scotland. Sign our petition here

** Poem for Road Safety 

Safe Roads 

At the end of the vennel, everything looked ordinary

Until stalled traffic signalled urgency. 

Not a tyre change. Not a minor delay. 

A crowd gathered, rigid with fear. 

A mother on her knees in the middle of the road, trying to hold herself together, 

clutching her injured child on the asphalt

As others looked on in terror. 

Faces strained,

Bystanders tripping over themselves to help.

Sirens distant, 

Time slowing,

to a brutal halt. 

And through the chaos

Through the shock, the blood, the disbelief

A child's cry crushed everyone's heart

And echoed down the street. 

This little boy didn't understand 

Why the world had gone blank

Why his parents hovered over him 

In panic, disarray and dread.

This is why we demand better roads,

Clearer crossings, slower speeds.

Not requests - demands. 

Because complacency brings danger to our streets. 

And inaction turns moments like this

Into someone's lifelong trauma. 

Would you want this for your son, grandson, niece, nephew or daughter? 

You ask the public to obey the rules

To trust a system you defend,

To wait, to hope, to endure

Then wonder why it all goes wrong? 

So do what those positions require: 

Stop treating preventable harm as acceptable, 

Fix what you have ignored,

Before your choices become fatal.

~ Lochend Resident who witnessed a road accident.