The Scottish Government

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Introduction

1. The Scottish House Condition Survey ( SHCS) is the only national survey of housing undertaken in Scotland. It combines both an interview with occupants and a physical inspection of dwellings to build a picture of Scotland's occupied housing stock which covers all types of dwellings across the entire country - whether owned or rented, flats or houses.

2. This is the fourth 'Key Findings' Report to be produced since the SHCS changed to a continuous format in 2003. Prior to 2003 surveys were conducted in 1991, 1996 and 2002 and typically consisted of sample sizes of around 15,000 paired social and physical households and their dwellings.

3. The continuous format was introduced to allow more flexibility of content and to assist in the monitoring of Ministerial targets. The 2003/4, 2004/5, 2005/6 and, now, the 2007 surveys each gathered data from almost 4,000 households and dwellings with paired social and physical data available for around 3,000 of these. A similar sample size to the previous surveys (15,000 cases) should be achieved over a five year period.

4. These results are based on fieldwork from January to December 2007. Given the smaller sample size, compared to earlier surveys, it is not possible in an annual report to provide in-depth estimates for a number of topics. So this report sets out key high-level national estimates relevant to a number of significant policy areas.

5. The report is divided into 5 sections:

1. Key Indicators of the Scottish Housing Stock - this covers basic issues such as dwelling type by age and data improvements including analysis introducing emulated energy performance certificates ( EPCs), council tax and whether a dwelling is on or off the gas grid;

2. Energy Efficiency - analysis of the energy efficiency of the housing stock is presented - based on both the National Home Energy Rating ( NHER) and the UK Government's Standard Assessment Procedure for the Energy Rating of Dwellings ( SAP) We have also included an analysis of emulated EPCs in preparation for their introduction in 2008;

3. Fuel Poverty - this section presents an analysis of the number and characteristics of households considered as being fuel poor in 2007;

4. Housing Quality - this part of the report provides estimates of the number of dwellings passing and failing the Scottish Housing Quality Standard ( SHQS). It also covers dampness, condensation and disrepair;

5. Notes and Definitions - the final section provides information about the content of the survey and the key concepts used in this document. Discussion on the reliability of the estimates is also included.

6. Care needs to be taken with the comparison of estimates from this report with those from the 2002 survey. Some features of the survey have not altered, consisting, as it does, of a social interview followed by a physical inspection. However, the use of continuous year-round fieldwork is a fundamental change in the methodology and cannot be discounted as a possible explanation of change.

7. For 2007 to 2009, the SHCS changed contractors from the Office for National Statistics to Ipsos- MORI. We can not discount the possibility that this may have caused some year on year changes.

8. Also, care must be taken in comparing dwelling numbers between each survey year as the base number of occupied dwellings changes. The number of occupied dwellings for each survey year is shown in Table 1. The figures are derived from the GROS¹ estimates of occupied dwellings (2002, 2003/4 and for 2007) and from CTAXBASE² data on chargeable dwellings supplied by each of Scotland's LAs (2004/5 and 2005/6).

Table 1: Base number of dwellings by survey year (2002-2007) (000s)

9. Increases in occupied dwellings can give the impression that more dwellings now fall into certain categories (more owner occupiers for example) so it may be important to compare rises in proportion as well as numbers.

10. The SHCS is a sample survey. All survey figures are therefore estimates of the true prevalence within the population. For some estimates, error bars and confidence intervals ( CIs) have been provided to assist analysis. Paragraphs 94-103 in the Notes and Definitions section provide further discussion of confidence intervals and errors associated with sampling.

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