The only thing that makes January worse is remembering that it is followed by February. Another month of bad weather, worse moods and ‘could it be Covid’ conversations, but this time with the added misery of it being the month when budgets are set.
Because, more often than not, budgets seem to bring more pain than any good news they claim to offer. This year is no exception, with an SNP-led Scottish Government budget, which includes massive cuts for nature and coastal change funding, slashing of funding for organisations working on community regeneration, and failing to properly invest in local services.
And, of course, Edinburgh Council has its own inglorious recent history of budget-setting too. The attempt of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors to cut all funding on climate initiatives in the first year of this political term forced Greens to pursue a more creative approach to decision-making that budget day, ultimately leading to the disgraced former Labour leader passing a Liberal Democrat budget which he hadn’t read, which didn’t add up and which betrayed the Labour values he was elected to represent. When this has been the historical offer, it’s no surprise that people in Edinburgh might not be waiting with bated breath for parties to release their spending plans.
But budget time is serious. The decisions we make have a concrete impact on people’s lives – and none more so than tenants whose rent level is set by the council. Back in 2023, the council agreed to a 7% rent rise for council tenants for the next 5-years. This decision was driven by the need of the council to guarantee future rental income at a level which would allow us to build more social housing and invest to improve the quality of people’s homes. And, given the limited options facing the council in 2023, it was the right decision at the time.
But, since then, things have changed. For the past 2-years Greens have been pressuring the Scottish Government to change the rules around spending on social housing. Previously, councils could only invest in social housing using the rents collected from tenants. But now, thanks to proposals made by Greens at Holyrood and council level, councils can use their general funds to top-up the budget for social housing. In other words, instead of burdening social tenants with the costs for upkeeping and building more homes, these can now be spread across all of society – including amongst those with the broadest shoulders. For those of us who believe that social housing is a social good which should be paid for from our collective wealth, this is game-changing.
In 2023, there was much handwringing by all parties about what such a rent rise would mean for tenants. Now Greens have given us the power to fund housing more fairly, our priority is to lower the rents for people at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis. Whether through increasing the council tax on second homes, or removing the Lord Provost’s wine budget (yes, somehow that’s a thing), we want to make this year’s budget a good news story for social housing tenants. It is about time.
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