The City of Edinburgh Council has launched Lot 1 of its four-year New Build Housing Framework Agreement, creating a faster and more efficient way to procure contractors for new housing projects. The framework is designed to support the council’s major ambition of delivering 25,000 affordable homes across the city and forms part of its wider response to Edinburgh’s housing emergency.
Lot 1, which was approved by the Finance and Resources Committee in January, is now officially live following the completion of the required standstill period. It has been divided into three sub-lots based on the size of housing sites: developments of one to 30 homes, 31 to 100 homes, and more than 100 homes. This structure is intended to make the framework more flexible and better suited to projects of different scales.
By dividing Lot 1 into smaller sub-lots, the council has aimed to encourage greater participation from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), rather than relying too heavily on a limited number of large contractors. This approach is expected to widen access to public contracts, strengthen delivery capacity, and create more opportunities for a broader range of builders to contribute to Edinburgh’s affordable housing programme.
With contractors now appointed under the framework, the council will be able to move forward with housebuilding projects more quickly. Instead of carrying out a full tender process for each new development, the framework allows the council to work directly with approved contractors, helping to streamline procurement and accelerate the delivery of much-needed homes.
The council says this forms part of its wider commitment to tackling the housing crisis in Edinburgh. It has pledged a record £1.6 billion for housebuilding in the current budget, underlining its intention to significantly increase affordable housing supply. The new framework is seen as a practical tool to help deliver that commitment at pace while also improving procurement efficiency.
A second part of the framework, known as Lot 2, will focus on collaboration and joint procurement with other partners. This is intended to help the council and its partners combine projects and achieve economies of scale when developing housing sites. A further award report for Lot 2 is expected to be presented to the Finance and Resources Committee in the coming months.
Although the user headline mentions a £350 million framework, the article states that contracts awarded under both lots of the New Build Housing Framework Agreement are estimated to be worth a total of £600 million. The tender process, led by Commercial and Procurement Services, included market engagement and attracted 22 responses across both lots, indicating strong interest from the sector.
The urgency behind the framework is underscored by the Housing Need and Demand Assessment for South-East Scotland, which estimates that Edinburgh will require between 36,000 and 52,000 new homes between 2021 and 2040. Of these, between 24,000 and 35,000 are expected to need to be affordable. This highlights the scale of the challenge and why the council is investing heavily in faster, more inclusive procurement routes to expand housing delivery across the city.
