The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Chapter Two Overview of Responses

2.1 A total of 387 responses have been received by the Scottish Government ¹. These have been inputted by Tribal into a database and prepared for analysis. The data have been coded and sorted into a format that allows comprehensive analysis of the responses overall and by stakeholder groups. The responses have been grouped by question, and sorted to allow some quantitative analysis of responses where appropriate. Table 1 summarises the level of response for each broad stakeholder group.

2.2 The range and variety of responses has been considerable but perhaps not surprisingly the greatest proportion of responses has come from stakeholder groups with a direct interest in the housing system in Scotland. For example housing associations, local government, tenant and voluntary organisations as well as private sector bodies.

Gap analysis

Overview

2.3 The Scottish Government invited just over 1100 organisations to respond to the discussion document. Each of the 32 local authorities submitted at least one response (where more than one response was received, these came from different services within the authority). Ninety-five responses were received from housing associations. This under-reflects the response from the sector, as three responses were on behalf of more than one association and a number of associations decided to respond via their regional network. The latter have been counted under the professional and representative bodies category.

2.4 Eight percent of the tenant and community groups contacted responded. Timing of the consultation may have been a problem for some groups - eight groups mentioned that, because the consultation took in the Christmas and New Year holidays, they had had insufficient time to prepare their response and/or submit their response to their management committee. This is the lowest 'response rate' recorded for any of the stakeholder groups contacted. A break down of response rates by stakeholder type is presented in Table 2.

Geographic distribution of respondents

2.5 As can be seen in Table 3 above, the majority of respondents, 86%, were located (or, at least, had their head office) in an urban area, while 14% were designated as rural. Responses from housing associations comprised the largest proportion in both types of area, with tenant and community groups the next largest. There was some variation between urban and rural areas. For example:

• Urban areas - 24% of responses were from housing associations; 14% from both tenant/community groups and private sector organisations 12% from voluntary or charity organisations constituting and 9% from local government.
• Rural areas - 23% of respondents were from rural housing associations, 20% from local government, 18% from tenant and community groups, and 16% from individuals.

Responses from 'equalities groups²'

2.6 A total of nine equalities groups responded to the consultation - 25% of those invited. This is the second lowest response rate of any stakeholder group, with tenant and community organisations being the lowest. The responses from equality groups mainly represented people with disabilities, with one coming from a group representing older people in the west of Scotland. The responses covered both national organisations (e.g. Sense Scotland) and other more localised groups (Disabled Persons Housing Service - Aberdeen and Fife both responded). Overall, the equalities groups that did not respond to the document included those that cover gender, race, religion and sensory disabilities.

2.7 As was typical with the overall response, equality group respondents did not answer every question. The highest response (five respondents per question) was for the following questions:

• 2 - regional co-operation on housing targets
• 3 - the specialist national function
• 10 - increased use of private sector to house households in housing need
• 16 - exemption of new build housing from the right to buy
• 18 - large-scale competition for housing subsidy

2.8 The lowest response (with just one respondent each) was for questions

• 4 - approaches for improving delivery on sites with planning permission
• 21 - mechanisms for subsidy for mid-market rent.

Analysis of questions

2.9 In order to give an accurate depiction of the responses, some questions have been grouped together as many of the respondents answered several questions within one answer, and then refer back to this question in subsequent answers. Examples where this occurs are 6 to 9, 16 and 26, 18 and 19, 20 to 22 and, 30 to 32. The gap analysis, therefore, has fourteen sections to take into account these groupings. The gap analysis groups are as follows:

• Housing supply target (questions 1 & 2)
• Specialist national function (Q3)
• Planning blockages (Q4)
• New/expanded settlements (Q5)
• First time buyers (questions 6 to 9)
• Private rented sector (questions 10-14)
• Recycle empty properties (Q15)
• Right to buys (questions 16 & 26)
• Investment and delivery (questions 17 - 19)
• Mid-market rents (questions 20 - 22)
• Sustainable mixed communities (Q23)
• Subsidies to non- RSLs and their tenants' protection (questions 24 & 25)
• Housing organisation performance and regulation (questions 27 to 29 and 33- 34)
• Green space within deprived areas (questions 30-32)

2.10 The housing supply target questions have the highest completion rate with an overall level of non-response of 28%. The least answered question was Q15 which sought suggestions for improving the efficiency of recycling empty properties. Response levels varied between the types of respondents:

• Local government organisations - The level of response was very high, with most groups of questions receiving responses from between 70% and 80% of respondents. Furthermore, there was little variation between the response level across the question groupings - with an average response rate of 72%.
• Housing associations - The response ranged from 50% of organisations for Q15 to 86% for the questions relating to investment and the allocation of subsidies. The average response rate was 59%.
• Private sector organisations - The response rate was highest for questions one and two (housing supply). Out of the fourteen gap analysis groups, only six sets of questions were answered by more than 50% of respondents - these were the first five groups and the questions on investment and delivery.

2.11 Tables containing a more detailed breakdown of the response for each of the question groupings are contained in the appendix.

2.12 In summary, Firm Foundations received a significant level of response from many of the key stakeholder groups with an interest in Scottish Government policy proposals. This includes local government, the housing association sector, the private sector, voluntary organisations and representative bodies. However, a lower response rate was achieved with organisations representing tenants, residents and equalities groups.

« Previous | Contents | Next »