Unions and housing campaigners are calling on Aberdeen City Council to urgently bring more than 1,800 empty homes back into use as the city continues to face a severe housing emergency.
Aberdeen currently has one of the highest numbers of vacant properties in Scotland, with figures showing an increase of 500 over the past year alone. Campaigners say this growing number of empty homes highlights the council’s failure to take decisive action despite declaring a housing emergency more than a year ago.
On Friday, campaigners delivered an open letter to the local authority demanding immediate steps to address the crisis. The call comes as the council considers a potential 12% rise in the rent of council-owned homes, a move that unions and tenant organisations warn could push struggling residents even further into hardship.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Housing Regulator warned that Aberdeen’s homeless services were at a “heightened risk of systemic failure.”
Living Rent member Esme Houston told STV News: “Rent prices have been very quickly rising over the last few years. We’ve seen a growing homelessness crisis, a cost of living crisis and in the middle of all of this, landlords and the council are trying to leech as much money out of the poorest people in the city as they can.”
Michael Arthur, another tenant, expressed concern about how higher rents could worsen living conditions for many. He told STV News: “It’s indicative of the larger problem that seems to be going on. You’ve got the underlying cost of energy as well, and the cost of food has gone up.”
A spokesperson for Aberdeen City Council said that any rent increases would help ensure high-quality services and fund improvements and upgrades to council homes.
Campaigners, however, insist that the council must prioritise filling empty properties and investing in affordable housing before asking tenants to pay more. They argue that tackling long-term vacancies could ease homelessness, reduce pressure on public services, and help stabilise rising rents across the city.
