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4 Derelict and Urban Vacant Land: The Location of such land relative to Deprivation

4.1 This section focuses on derelict and urban vacant land and where it is situated relative to the 15% most deprived datazones in Scotland (as identified by the 'Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation' ( SIMD 2006)). The SIMD 2006 project identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland. It contains 37 indicators in seven domains: Current Income, Employment, Health, Education, Skills and Training, Geographic Access to Services, Housing and Crime. Further information on SIMD 2006 is available in Annex section A.8.

Table 9: Derelict and urban vacant land located within the 15% most deprived datazones, 2004-2007 ^1-3

1. 2004-2007 analysis uses the results of the SIMD 2006 General Report, published in October 2006.
2. See Annex Table E for details of council participation in different years.
3. Further information on how this data was calculated is available in Annex Section A.8.

4.2 Table 9 shows the proportion of each local authority's datazones that are within Scotland's 15% most deprived and the amount of derelict and urban vacant land that is situated within those datazones for the years 2004-2007. In 2004, 1,876 hectares of derelict and urban vacant land were situated within the 15% most deprived datazones. By 2007 this had decreased to 1,816 hectares. This represents 18% of all derelict and urban vacant land recorded in Scotland in 2007.

4.3 Glasgow City has the largest amount of derelict and urban vacant land located within the 15% most deprived datazones for each of the last 4 years. However this figure has dropped by 51 hectares between 2004 and 2007, from 875 hectares to 824 hectares. North Lanarkshire has the second highest amount of derelict and urban vacant land located within the 15% most deprived datazones for 2004-2007. Whereas Glasgow City showed a drop in the amount of derelict and urban vacant land within those datazones between 2004 and 2007, North Lanarkshire's total remained broadly stable, with 379 hectares in 2004 and 384 hectares by 2007.

4.4 At the other end of the scale, Eilean Siar, Moray, The Orkney Islands and The Shetland Islands have no datazones within Scotland's 15% most deprived, thus no derelict or urban vacant land could be recorded in Table 9. In addition to this, whilst Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian and Scottish Borders do have datazones within Scotland's 15% most deprived, they do not have any derelict or urban vacant land situated within those areas.

Chart 5: Derelict and urban vacant land located within the 15% most deprived datazones, 2007

4.5 Chart 5 shows the amount of derelict and urban vacant land located within the 15% most deprived datazones in 2007, split by local authority. Glasgow City has the highest proportion, with 46% of all derelict and urban vacant land within the 15% most deprived datazones being located within this council's boundaries. North Lanarkshire is second, containing 21% of all derelict and urban vacant land located within the 15% most deprived datazones. Some distance behind those 2 councils lies Dundee City (with 5%), Highland (5%), South Lanarkshire (4%) and Renfrewshire (3%). Across Scotland as a whole, two thirds of all derelict and urban vacant land located within the 15% most deprived datazones comes from either Glasgow City or North Lanarkshire. A further 23 councils collectively account for the remaining third.

4.6 Chart 6 (on page 18 overleaf) draws together the analysis on people's proximity to derelict land in 2004/2007 and the information on deprivation levels contained within SIMD 2006. Each deprivation decile is shown on the x-axis, whereby '1' represents the 10% most deprived datazones in Scotland, through to '10', which represents the 10% least deprived datazones in Scotland. For each decile, the proportion of the total datazone population that lives within 500m of a derelict site in 2004 and 2007 is given.

4.7 A clear relationship can be seen in Chart 6, whereby as datazones get progressively less deprived, the proportion of their population that lives within 500m of a derelict site becomes smaller. This relationship holds for both 2004 and 2007. Whilst this pattern has remained fairly stable during the past 4 years, it is noteworthy that the population within the 2 most deprived deciles has become slightly less likely to live near derelict land (for example decile 1's proportions dropped from 57% in 2004 to 53% by 2007). During the same period all the other deprivation deciles (from 3 to 10) showed slight increases in the proportion of their populations living within 500m of derelict land.

Chart 6: Percentage of Scotland's population living within 500m of derelict land by deprivation decile, 2004/2007

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