The report, which will be public on March 4, will say that the proposed plan will now be considered by councillors in the summer with the preference being for a committee in August.

The proposed plan was due to be considered by the planning committee last month but the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) was subject to a significant cyber attack just before Christmas which is still affecting its services.

The council said this is having an impact on work on the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment required for the proposed plan as well as many other matters.

The proposed plan was originally due to be considered by councillors in December but disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic has led to some technical reports not being fully completed.

Councillor Neil Gardiner, planning convener, said: “The proposed plan will be ambitious and will help us build a more sustainable future as the Capital grows in the coming years. When complete, the proposed plan needs to be robust and not open to challenge on the credibility of the flood risk evidence, which is why we need to postpone its completion.

“I have every sympathy with SEPA and the challenges they are experiencing as a result of this incident and appreciate they are rightly focusing at the moment on immediate risks of flooding or significant breaches of the other regulatory responsibilities they have.”