Earlier this month I had the pleasure of meeting the Shelter Scotland staff at their South Charlotte Street office hub to discuss housing in the constituency and throughout Scotland.

The staff at Shelter Scotland offer specialist housing advice and support services. Shelter Scotland helps over half a million people a year struggling with bad housing or homelessness and campaigns to prevent homelessness in the first place.

Key Shelter Scotland stats:

• Last year alone over 12,000 new cases were opened by advisors through Shelter’s free national helpline. 14% (1,946) of these came from Edinburgh households.

• The reasons people living in Edinburgh come to Shelter for advice and support varies, but the majority of problems are linked to landlord issues or housing conditions and keeping or accessing a home.

Key Edinburgh stats:

Homelessness

• 4040 homelessness applications were made in City of Edinburgh in 2014-15

• 447 children were in temporary accommodation in City of Edinburgh in March 2015

• 945 households were in temporary accommodation in City of Edinburgh in March 2015

Private Rented Sector

• 29% of households in City of Edinburgh live in the Private Rented Sector, significantly higher than any other locality and the national average which is 14%.

• In 3 out of 32 Scottish local authorities median local rent for a two bedroom property took up between 35 and 40% of local median net income. These areas are Moray, City of Edinburgh and East Lothian.

For free, friendly housing advice you can contact the Shelter helpline on 0808 800 4444 or visit the website:•http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice