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Social Justice
a Scotland where everyone matters
Indicators of Progress 2003

Milestone 27: Increasing the quality and variety of homes in our most disadvantaged communities.

This milestone is measured by a range of indicators collected by the Scottish Executive from Communities Scotland and Local Authorities. The indicators cover: type of homes; size of homes and overcrowding; tenure of homes; numbers of new homes built; housing quality and neighbourhood satisfaction.

Type of homes

The 1999 - 2002 figures show little change in the proportion of households living in dwellings of various types.

Table 27a: Types of home

Size of homes

The Scottish Household Survey collects information on the number of bedrooms a dwelling has. Table 27b shows that across Scotland in 2002 an estimated 51 per cent of households had one or two bedrooms, 37 per cent had three bedrooms, while 12 per cent had 4 or more bedrooms.

Table 27b: Number of bedrooms in a dwelling

Density of Occupation

The distribution of dwellings by size is, perhaps, not so important as how that distribution matches the distribution of households in terms of household size. In recent surveys a measure called the bedroom standard has been used to estimate the proportions of households living in dwellings with the number of bedrooms more, less or equal to their requirements. The table below shows estimates of the distribution of households by bedroom standard in 1996, 1999 to 2001. "Above the standard" means that the household has more bedrooms than are strictly needed to accommodate the household, taking account of the number of people in the household as well as their relationships to each other and the sex and ages of the children. The exact definition of the bedroom standard is set out in the 1996 SHCS annual report.

Table 27c: Percentage of households by bedroom standard, 1996 - 2002

Under the bedroom standard, some 5 per cent of households living in the most relatively deprived areas have too few bedrooms compared to 1 per cent in the least deprived areas.

Table 27d: Percentage of households below bedroom standard by interim deprivation index, 2002

The Census provides an alternative measure of under occupancy and over crowding. It relates the actual number of rooms to the number of rooms 'required' by the members of the household (based on a relationship between them and their ages). This measure takes into account the number of public rooms and bedrooms, where as the bedroom standard looks at bedrooms. The results show a clear association between the proportion of households with too few rooms and the level of relative area deprivation.

Table 27e: Percentage of households with too few rooms by interim deprivation index, 2001 Census

Housing Tenure

The Scottish Executive Development Department is currently reviewing its methodology for estimating dwelling stock and tenure. Provisional estimates show that in 2001, 64 per cent of dwellings were owner occupied, 23 per cent of dwellings were rented from the public sector, 7 per cent privately rented and 6 per cent were rented from a housing association or other social landlord. When compared to 1991 figures there has been an increase of 12 percentage points (from 52 per cent) in the number of owner occupied dwellings, caused mainly by the reduction in publicly rented properties. Looking further back, owner occupation was as low as 36 per cent in 1981, while the public rented sector accounted for 52 per cent of dwellings.

Chart 27f: Housing stock by Tenure (End of year estimates)

Source: Housing Statistics : Scottish Executive

Information on housing tenure from the Scottish Household Survey also shows a steady increase in the proportion of owner occupier households. The survey also shows a steady decrease in the proportion of households in the social rented sector.

Table 27g: Housing Tenure, 1999 - 2002

Local Authority owned dwellings

Since 1999, the number of dwellings owned by local authorities has decreased by some 73,000. This will have been influenced in part by the Right to Buy policies developed in the early 80s, as well as by local authority stock transfers of varying scales in more recent times. The former is likely to have impacted on the levels of owner-occupation, while the latter may be considered in terms of diversification of the social rented sector.

Table 27h: Local Authority owned dwellings by type, 1999 - 2003

Newly Built Dwellings

Chart 27i shows the number of newly built dwellings, by sector across Scotland. The chart clearly shows that since the late 1970s, there was a steady decline in the number of public sector dwellings built each year. From around 23,000 in 1975 to under 100 by 2002. Throughout the 1990s private sector building accounted for between 75 per cent and 90 per cent of the new building program. The remaining building program was taken up by Housing Associations. In 1975 the total number of new built dwellings was 34,323 of which 23,186 (68 per cent) were public sector, 10,371 (30 per cent) were private sector, with the remaining 2 per cent being made up by Housing Associations. By 2002, of the estimated 24,027 dwellings completed that year, 18,856 (79 per cent) were private sector.

Chart 27i: Number of new built dwellings completed, 1975 to 2002

Source: Scottish Executive Housing Statistics Branch

The pattern of house building is quite different across Scotland. Information for the period 1999 and 2000 shows that just under one quarter of all new built houses were built in Glasgow and Edinburgh. These two Local Authority areas also accounted for just over one fifth of all new built private houses and one third of all new built Housing Association houses. Glasgow on its own accounted for one fifth of all new built Housing Association houses over this period.

The split between private and Housing Association new built houses is also different across the country. In Argyll and Bute, the number of private built new houses was similar to the number of new built Housing Association houses, whereas in Glasgow and Perth and Kinross more than twice as many new built homes were for the private sector than for the Housing Association sector. In Moray, Falkirk, Eilean Siar and East Ayrshire roughly 10 times the number of new built private sector houses were constructed compared to Housing Association houses.

Housing Quality

Baseline information on housing quality at national level is provided by the 1996 Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS). The first information from 2002 Scottish House Condition Survey was published in November 2003. It is expected that this information will be supplemented at local level by local housing surveys undertaken in support of local authorities' strategic housing responsibilities.

The 2002 SHCS estimated that 6 per cent of all dwellings in Scotland are affected by some form of dampness (compared to 8 per cent reported in 1996), while 11 per cent were affected by condensation (compared to 21 per cent reported in 1996). These figures are based on the surveyors' assessment of the dwelling condition.

In 2002, the SHCS estimated that 20,000 properties were below the Tolerable Standard, using a new version of the standard: this represents 0.9 per cent of dwelling stock. Under the old version of the standard used in 1996, the 2002 SHCS found an estimated 19,000 dwellings to be below the standard. It must be noted that estimates for below Tolerable Standard dwellings from different sources show substantial divergence: local authorities' estimates for 1996 gave a total figure of 84,000, and local authority estimates in each of the three subsequent years varied between 70,000 and 78,000 in total, though independent research commissioned by the Scottish Executive has indicated that these estimates are not accurate or consistent over time. This research examined the reasons for the divergence and was used to inform the development of the modified standard used in the 2002 SHCS.

The 2001 Census shows that just under 8 per cent of all Scotland's households do not have central heating. There are differences between relatively deprived areas, with some 11 per cent of households in the most relatively deprived areas not having central heating compared to some 6 per cent of households in the least deprived areas.

Table 27j: Percentage of households with specified amenities by interim deprivation index, 2001 Census

Neighbourhood Satisfaction

People's perceptions of their neighbourhood as a good place to live showed very little change over the three year period since 2000 when the question was introduced in to the Scottish Household Survey, with approximately half saying that was a very good place to live, and a further 40 per cent agreeing that it was a good place to live.

Almost one in five people living in the most relatively deprived areas rate their neighbourhood as a very or fairly poor place to live.

Table 27k: Neighbourhood satisfaction by interim deprivation index, 2002

Background data

Table 27l: Type of Homes: Local Authority Stock, 1979 - 2003

Table 27m: Size of Home data - number of bedrooms in 1996,

Table 27n: Estimated housing stock by tenure

Table 27o: New Build Completions, 1975 - 2002

Availability of data and references

Information is currently largely available at Scotland level. In future years increasing amounts of data will be available from the Scottish Household Survey at local authority level and by type of area. Some data on tenure and household type has been included in this year's report.

Additional tables may be available from the Scottish Executive Development Department Analytical Services Division (Housing Statistics) on request. Housing statistics publications, including Excel versions of the tables, are available in the published data section of the Housing Statistics reference website: www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref

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