The fifth cyclical service performance report from the City of Edinburgh Council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee has shown increasing numbers of children being stuck in temporary accommodation in the city when compared to 2023/24.

The council’s figures reveal children are on the frontline of Edinburgh’s housing emergency with more than 3,600 children in Edinburgh in temporary housing as of November 2024. This compares with 2,823 children stuck in temporary accommodation across all of Wales in the same month.

This comes as the latest devastating homelessness statistics show a record breaking 10,360 children are living in temporary accommodation in Scotland as of 30 September 2024.

Shelter Scotland director, Alison Watson, said:  “It is the harrowing reality that 3,600 children in Edinburgh are waking up homeless.

“The situation in Wales is also stark with the latest statistics revealing 2,823 children without a permanent home. However, this represents a slightly improving picture in Wales, while here in Scotland things continue to spiral out of control.

“The Scottish Government is always keen to highlight comparisons with the rest of the UK when it suits them – but the fact that significantly more children in our capital city are waking up homeless than in the entirety of Wales, which is in the grip of its own housing emergency, is scandalous.

“This is the direct consequence of the Scottish Government and local authorities failing to prioritise housing and the desperate need for more social homes. The Scottish Government must do more to target resources where they are most needed if they’re to meet their own ambition of eradicating child poverty.

“We can’t tackle child poverty without tackling child homelessness. And we can’t tackle child homelessness without more social homes.”