End Poverty Edinburgh - 2025 Findings Report

We attended the launch of this report in October. Regenerative Futures Fund was developed in partnership with End Poverty Edinburgh, co-designed by members of End Poverty Edinburgh residents group, and the idea for a ten-year pooled fund grew out of a recommendation in the original Poverty Commission Report, to harness the resources of the city to end poverty.

Below is the blog written by co-chairs of The Poverty Commission, Linda Craik and Jim McCormick, talking about poverty in the city of Edinburgh five years on from the initial commission and report. Thank you to all our colleagues in the city for their work, passion and challenge in trying to make progress and change for people in Edinburgh.

We are proud to be a partner alongside The Poverty Commission and End Poverty Edinburgh, and to be mentioned as an fellow initiative focused on ending poverty in the city and taking care to hear and work with people with lived experience of poverty.

Here is the original blog on the Poverty Commission website (also copied below).

31 October 2025

The Edinburgh Poverty Commission are today publishing the findings of their 2025 inquiry into the solutions to poverty in Scotland’s capital city.  The full report is available for download HERE.

To mark this publication, Commission co-chairs Jim McCormick and Linda Craik offer their thoughts on the work of the inquiry, and on the challenges they set for the city.

We are five years on from the Edinburgh Poverty Commission first setting out our calls to action for the city in A Just Capital. Published between two Covid lockdowns, Commission members could not have anticipated the long shadow of the pandemic on people’s lives, or the impact of the cost-of-living crisis that followed.

While the calls to action were made to meet the challenges of poverty in 2020, members knew the work had to carry on and go deeper. The baton was passed to a new group of citizens with first-hand experience of the key issues – End Poverty Edinburgh (EPE) – to hold the city to account. Each year since, EPE members supported by Poverty Alliance have engaged with decision-makers and prepared their own commentary on the city’s progress. In Spring 2024, EPE and many of the original Commission members agreed to combine forces, taking a fresh look at how far Edinburgh has moved towards a set of 2030 targets. We have done that together: as a fully independent exercise and with the support of an expert secretariat offered by City of Edinburgh Council. We have met with grassroots organisations and public service directors, reviewed the data, and looked ahead to where the city needs to be.             

The picture is distinctly mixed. We cannot say things have got better city-wide. Some things have become tougher: not least the scale of temporary accommodation use as a raw sign of the housing crisis. Too many people are still going from pillar to post to access the range of services and support they need. Working and funding in silos makes it harder to seek and receive help when it is most needed. Too many voluntary organisations at the frontline of the challenge everyday are stretched to breaking point.

Overall, Edinburgh is not on track to solve poverty. Poverty levels appear to have flat-lined. We are not seeing modest progress on child poverty as witnessed across most of Scotland. Well over 80,000 people in the city struggling to get by. For a growing number, hardship is deeper and more enduring. For too many people and places, hope and trust are in short supply. For this to be the story of a wealthy city is neither acceptable nor inevitable.  

At the same time, it is also true that we have seen signs of positive change. Low pay has fallen steadily: the story of in-work poverty is strongly related to not enough hours or security of work. Greater dignity in Scottish social security is being experienced. Income maximisation support has been embedded in health and education services. Powerful collaborative work is being done at neighbourhood level, demonstrating what can be achieved when support is personalised, flexible and holistic. Diverse communities have shown what they can do to change the landscape for people in, and at risk of, poverty. Anti-stigma capability is developing in the public service workforce. Early but decisive steps are being taken to prevent homelessness, although against a fast-rising tide of need. We know that these gains are patchy and fragile. Momentum slips all too easily if collective will is not renewed.

We present this report without fear or favour. That this review has taken place at all is a mark of the city’s commitment. Rarely has a local poverty commission’s work stayed in the forefront of minds, navigated changes of leadership, and maintained the participation of experts by experience. EPE has brought new and richer perspectives on the last five years and what now needs to happen. For things to improve, this needs to go further. It is to the credit of everyone who has stayed the course in the last five years.

Against the odds, we have found enough determination in the city to believe that the original calls to action can still be achieved by 2030. Longer-term and flexible funding, true collaboration between sectors and new forms of accountability are required for these examples to achieve their real impact. This is a time for renewed commitment from those we elect at local, Scottish and UK levels, via investment in social housing, education, fair work, social security, equity in education, health and social care and a just transition. There is no sustainable route to ending poverty otherwise. 

Finally, we want to thank all EPE and Commission members, all who contributed to the review process and especially Chris Adams, Eleanor Cunningham, Devika Ponnambalam, and Steven Drew who have brought care, compassion and wise words throughout.

Jim McCormick & Linda Craik

Co-chairs of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission