The Scottish Government

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3 Housing

INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

The Scottish Government's vision for the future of housing includes an increased supply of housing across all tenures, more choice of affordable housing, and housing developments that contribute to the creation of sustainable mixed communities. ¹⁸While the Scottish House Condition Survey ¹⁹ ( SHCS) is the primary source of information about housing in Scotland, the Scottish Household Survey also includes some questions on housing which are used to explore the relationships between living circumstances and the characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of Scottish households.

This chapter presents some basic information on housing tenure in Scotland, including changes over the past decade and how tenure varies with household type, rurality and deprivation. More detailed tables on housing are available on the SHS website. ²⁰

HOUSING TENURE

The last 50 years have seen a substantial change in housing tenure in Scotland. Historically, there has been a marked increase in the proportion of owner-occupier households, from a quarter in 1961 ²¹ to two-thirds in 2007 (Table 3.1). This was mirrored in the decline of the private and social rented sector, which in 1961 accounted for 34% and 41% of households respectively.

Reflecting changes in cultural attitudes toward home ownership, two structural factors have contributed to this shift: the introduction of the right to buy for public authority tenants in 1979 coupled with the decline of public authority new build, and the increased contribution of private sector building.

The more recent SHS data give some indication that the rising trend in relation to owner-occupation may be levelling out to some extent, possibly in part due to increasing pressure in the housing market, while the private rented sector has shown small but consistent signs of growth from 5% in 1999 to 8% in 2007.

TABLE 3.1: TENURE OF HOUSEHOLD BY YEAR*
Column percentages, 1999-2007 data

* Revised October 2008

The decline in social housing has been accompanied by substantial changes in the profile of its tenants. Data from the Scottish Census show that in 1981, the profile of social sector tenants was similar to the profile of households in society generally in terms of their size, composition, and social and economic characteristics. This is no longer the case and tenure patterns show marked differences by household type, reflecting differences in life stage and household circumstances (Table 3.2). ²² Owner occupation is the predominant tenure for most household types, the notable exception being for single parent households (31%) and, to a somewhat lesser extent, single adult households (49%). Single adult households tend to make greater use of the private rented sector (15% compared to 8% overall), while over half of single parent households are in social housing, which is the predominant tenure for this group. Single adult and pensioner households are both also somewhat overrepresented in the social rented sector relative to other groups.

TABLE 3.2: TENURE OF HOUSEHOLD BY HOUSEHOLD TYPE*
Column percentages, 2007 data

* Revised October 2008

The patterns highlighted above reflect differences in access to resources ²³ which, to a large extent, may be transitory, as in the case of young adults in the early stages of their working lives, or more persistent, as in the case of single parents and pensioners. There are also strong links with gender as most of the latter hosueholds will be headed by women: 32% of households with female heads of household (as defined by the highest income earner) are in the social sector, compared with 17% for households with a male head of household.

There is a strong geographic component to the changing profile of the social housing sector and the link with deprivation. The 15% most deprived areas ²⁴ are characterised by high concentrations of social housing (Table 3.3), with over half (58%) of households in the social rented sector; compared to 24% overall. More generally, there is a consistent and marked linear relationship between levels of social sector renting and deprivation. ²⁵

TABLE 3.3: TENURE OF HOUSEHOLD BY SCOTTISH INDEX OF MULTIPLE DEPRIVATION*
Column percentages, 2007 data

* Revised October 2008

Tenure also varies between urban and rural areas, although this is somewhat less marked (Table 3.4). Levels of owner-occupation are highest in rural areas and accessible small towns, the former due to the relatively small social rented sector in rural areas, while the latter reflects in part urban workers moving out of high pressure housing markets to more affordable areas. Private renting is somewhat more common in large urban and remote rural areas (10% for large urban and 11% for remote rural, compared to 8% overall).

TABLE 3.4: TENURE OF HOUSEHOLD BY URBAN/RURAL CLASSIFICATION*
Column percentages, 2007 data

* Revised October 2008

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