The Scottish Government

Supply of good quality housing: through new building, refurbishment and conversion to domestic use.

Associated Targets

Increase the rate of new house building .

Brief Description

The indicator measures additions to the supply of housing. The discussion document 'Firm Foundations' published on 31 October proposes an aim that the rate of new housing supply should increase to at least 35,000 per year by the middle of the next decade. The indicator measures additions to the supply of housing.

Housing supply includes public and private new house building; conversions of existing buildings to housing use; and refurbishment of dwellings.

Increases in the supply of housing should not be at the expense of the quality of new and existing houses. For new housing, the Government has introduced new building standards to increase the quality and energy efficiency of all new properties. The Government has also affirmed its commitment that all local authority and housing association houses meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015 and from 2008 local authorities will have a duty, supported by new powers, to establish and implement strategies to improve the condition of houses in the private sector.

Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates

The Purpose: Additional housing supply supports the target of matching average European ( EU15) population growth over the period from 2007 to 2017.

Wealthier & Fairer: The supply of housing of the right type in the right place is an important contributor to economic growth in all parts of Scotland.

Safer & Stronger: An adequate supply of well designed affordable housing for all is a key feature of a strong community.

Healthier: Good quality new and existing housing is an essential underpinning to the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.

More Detailed Definitions

Definitions of Keywords

New house building: houses completed by or for housing associations, local authorities or private developers for below market rent or low cost home ownership; houses completed for market sale by private developers.

refurbishment: houses acquired by housing associations and refurbished either for rent or low cost home ownership. Refurbishment of private dwellings funded wholly or partly through the Affordable Housing Investment Programme.

conversion: new dwellings created by conversion from non-housing to housing use.

Evidence Source

Statistical returns by councils to the Scottish Executive; and planning information from the Affordable Housing Investment Programme ( AHIP).

Proxy for main indicator (Data Source) - if relevant

Data on refurbishments excludes refurbishments of privately owned properties which do not receive funding through the Affordable Housing Investment Programme. There is no data available for this type of refurbishment.

Baseline and Past Trends

New housing supply totalled 26,195 in financial year 2006-07, which can be split as follows:

Time series tables showing past trends in the components of new housing supply are available to download from the new build section of the Housing Statistics for Scotland website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild

Methodology for Data Source

The indicator is the sum of the various contributions to new housing supply as set out in the summary table above.

Data Ownership and Quality Assurance

Published data are National Statistics and are published by Communities ASD.

Publication of Data

Information on each component of the indicator will be published in the autumn of each year on the Scottish Government website in the annual web based Housing Statistics for Scotland publication.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfSNewBuild

Methodology for Recent Change Arrow on Scotland

A difference in new supply of less than 1000 compared to the previous financial year suggests no change. An increase of 1000 or more houses indicates an improving position, while a decrease of 1000 or more indicates a worsening position.

Future issues or reviews

Current data collections on new house building are likely to be replaced over the next 1-3 years by completions data based on local authorities' Housing Land Audits. Land audit data will be available annually, and although most local authorities complete these as at March each year, some choose June, and others December. This will impact on the timing of the update of this indicator, and past trends from this source may not be available back to the 2006-07 baseline date.