Record spend on affordable housing
Thousands of new homes are set to be delivered in Edinburgh over the next five years thanks to an additional £1.6 billion agreed by councillors. The , passed on 26 February, includes a record spend on providing affordable housing alongside significant investment in frontline services, children and education. View the .
Edinburgh’s budget – key facts
Tackling the housing emergency
- Tackling the housing emergency with an additional £1.6bn investment for affordable homes and temporary accommodation - 2,500 homes for temporary accommodation, funding to unlock around 1,100 settled homes at affordable rents and investment capacity for up to around 2,300 additional settled homes.
- Further key investments totalling £3m directed towards homelessness prevention, including additional staffing to work directly with those at risk of homelessness and creation of a grants budget to bring empty homes back into use as part of the Private Sector Leasing scheme.
Maintaining and improving the city’s roads, schools and public buildings
- Continue ongoing investment in roads and pavements programme with a further £25m for two years, following the initial investment of £37.5m over three years, which brought a significant improvement in the state of city’s roads. An additional £480k was agreed today towards pothole repairs and white line painting.
- Craigroyston and Queensferry High Schools will benefit from investment totalling £85.8m to progress major extensions as part of the City Plan 2030. This is in addition to the investment of £296m in five new schools and five extensions, together with the replacement of Fox Covert Campus, which was approved last year.
- £13.2m for the development of a new permanent Blackhall Library, £7.5m for Portobello Swim Centre and an additional £18.3m over ten years to enhance a co-ordinated Council-wide Buildings Improvement Programme.
Getting it right for every child
- Budgeted spend on Children, Education and Communities in 2026-27 of £587m, an increase of £14m compared to last year’s budget.
- Continued investment in education and children’s services, including expanded ASN staffing and facilities, ensuring inclusive education and better life chances for every child in Edinburgh and support targeted investment to improve safety and address violence and aggression at work, recognising the duty of care owed to Council employees and the importance of safe service delivery.
- Prioritising early family support and keeping children with their families where safe, rather than costly and disruptive external care placements.
Preventing poverty
- Rolling out Neighbourhood Prevention Partnerships across five local areas to join up services and make help more accessible.
- Funding for advice and benefits services (building on a £1m allocation in 2025/26).
- Improving affordable childcare access, expanding affordable housing, and creating a citywide community wealth-building plan.
- Prioritising the acceleration and improvement of the city-wide early intervention actions needed to prevent poverty in Edinburgh.
Supporting the third sector
- A sustainable and strengthened package of support for the third sector, including a £1.4m income maximisation fund, providing support for third sector providers of money, welfare, and debt advice in Edinburgh and a £2.0m Local Community Organisations fund - with a further £500k agreed today to support small third sector organisations.
Extra support for health and social care
- The budget includes an additional £6 million uplift to support the Integration Joint Board budget pressures. This approach provides short-term financial stability for the IJB, allowing focus to remain on service sustainability, transformation and delivery of strategic priorities.
- Invest £50k towards installing Bleed Kits in Council buildings across the city
New Council Tax bands
A 1,084.03
B 1,264.71
C 1,445.38
D 1,626.05
E 2,136.45
F 2,642.33
G 3,184.35
H 3,983.82