Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart joined Edinburgh Council representatives and property developers Places for People on a visit to mark work starting on the 374-home Shrubhill development earlier today.
Mr Stewart is photographed with Colin Rae, Group Development Director at Places for People as they take a look at plans on the Shrubhill building site on Leith Walk, Edinburgh.
Phase one will include 93 of a total of 150 new homes to be delivered at Shrubhill under the National Housing Trust initiative (NHT), the largest single NHT development in Scotland.
When the £75 million development is complete it will offer a range of tenure options for rent and sale. As well as the new-build properties, there will be flats available within the conversion of the existing Grade B listed former tram depot buildings.
Shrubhill is the site of Edinburgh’s historic tram depot, built in 1898, where there were workshops and the engine room that housed the winding gear for the city’s famous cable-hauled trams, the last of which ran in 1923. The last of the electric trams arrived on its final journey on Friday the 16th of November 1956. The tram sheds, chimney and a large part of the boundary wall and gables, all listed, will remain part of the development.
Colin Rae, Group Development Director at Places for People, said: “The redevelopment of Shrubhill will breathe new life into a brownfield site that has been neglected for many years. It is the only site of its type where NHT is delivered as part of a large scale city centre development and there is no doubt that the NHT initiative has indeed been instrumental in moving a scheme of this size forward. We are building a really special neighbourhood of high quality homes here, and the mixed tenure options available will open up opportunities for everyone to become part of a vibrant new city centre community.”
Speaking ahead of his visit, Mr Stewart said: “This Government is committed to delivering 50,000 more affordable homes over the next five years. Unique innovative financing schemes, such as NHT, play an important role in helping us deliver this major expansion in housing supply – supplementing delivery through conventional programmes which is backed up with investment of more than £3 billion.
“I am delighted to officially mark the start of work on the Shrubhill site. This development will not only regenerate an iconic site in the centre of Edinburgh, but will also provide hundreds more high quality affordable homes for the people of the city.”
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