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Scotland's People Volume 7: results from the 2001/2002 Scottish Household Survey

4. Where we live

Introduction

This chapter looks at the housing circumstances and neighbourhood issues experienced by Scottish households. It examines housing tenure, the types of properties in which people live and the extent to which households have moved home. Households' views of their neighbourhood and their experiences of neighbourhood problems, neighbour disputes and crime are also examined.

Please refer to Section 2 for more information about interpreting the information in the tables in this section.

Housing

Figure 4.1 shows the tenure breakdown of Scotland's housing. Owner-occupation - either owned outright or buying with a mortgage - now accounts for almost two-thirds (63%) of households' tenure, while 29% of households rent from a social landlord and 6% rent from a private landlord.

Just over a third (36%) of all households live in flats, with these properties featuring more strongly some areas than in other and especially in the more urban areas than in rural areas (Table 4-9 and Table 4-8).

Overall, 9% of adults have lived in their current residence for less than a year while 11% had been resident for 31 years or more ( Table 4-11). Annual turnover is particularly high in the private rented sector where 47% had been in their current property for less than one year.

Using characteristics of the household such as the relationships between adults, the ages of children and the total number of adults and children, it is possible to estimate the extent to which dwellings are over-crowded or under-occupied. Using this approach, only 3% of households have fewer rooms than they require. Indeed, it is the norm for households to have at least one more bedroom than they require and almost two-thirds (65%) are in this position ( Table 4-13).

Households in rural areas are more likely to have more rooms than they require. Compared with 59% of households in large urban areas, 74% of households in accessible rural areas and 77% of households in remote rural areas have more rooms than they need.

Neighbourhoods

Adults' assessments of their neighbourhoods are overwhelmingly positive, with 92% saying their local area is either a 'very good' or 'fairly good' place to live, but as Table 4-26 also shows, there is considerable variation between tenures, especially in the proportion saying their area is 'very good'. For example, 63% of households in owner-occupied accommodation rate their area as 'very good' and 53% of those buying their home with the help of a mortgage give their neighbourhood the same rating. In the rented sectors only around a third of social rented tenants say their area is 'very good' - 36% of those renting from a local authority or Scottish Homes and 33% of those renting from a housing association or co-operative.

The most commonly mentioned 'likes' are that the area is 'quiet and peaceful' (57%), it is convenient for shopping (34%) and that it has 'friendly people' (31%) ( Table 4-30). The main 'dislikes' mentioned are 'young people hanging around' (12%) and 'vandalism' mentioned by 8% of adults ( Table 4-31)

Local transport and personal safety

Table 4-50 to Table 4-56 shows the extent to which adults use buses, walk or use trains in the evening (between 7pm and 10pm). Overall, over three-quarters of adults never use local buses (77%), 37% never walk in their area in the evening and 82% never travel by train in the evening.

When asked about their perceptions of how safe it is or would be to travel by bus or train in the evening, or to walk alone in their neighbourhood after dark, most adults think it is safe. However, 20% of adults think it is unsafe to travel by bus in the evening ( Table 4-51), 24% think it is unsafe to walk alone in their neighbourhood after dark ( Table 4-54) and 20% think it is unsafe to travel by train in the evening ( Table 4-59). 9

Social contact, community involvement and neighbourliness

The most common form of social contact is speaking to relatives on the telephone (85%) and the least common is going out with relatives (40%) but there is considerable variation between age groups ( Table 4-69).

Table 4-72 shows that there is a generally low community involvement, with just over a quarter of adults (26%) saying that they feel involved in their communities either a great deal or a fair amount.

Figure 4-1: Tenure of households

Since the questionnaire for 2001/2002 was written, Scottish Homes has changed to Communities Scotland

Table 4-1: Local authority by tenure
Row percentages, 2001/2002 data, Households

Table 4-2: Tenure of households by year

Column percentages, 1999-2002 data
Households

Table 4-3: Tenure of household by household type
Row percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 4-4: Tenure of household by annual net household income
Row percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 4-5: Tenure of households by urban/rural classification

Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 4-6: Property type by household type
Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

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