Scottish Vacant And Derelict Land Survey 2021

The Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey (SVDLS) is a data collection undertaken to establish the extent and state of vacant and derelict land in Scotland.


8. Derelict Land: People’s Proximity to Derelict Land

8.1 This section focuses exclusively on derelict land and people’s proximity to such sites throughout Scotland. It reports on people’s proximity to derelict land and not their exposure to it.

8.2 27.2% of Scotland’s population is estimated to live within 500 metres of a derelict site. A further 24.0% are estimated to live between 500 metres and 1,000 metres of a derelict site with the remaining 48.8% living at least 1,000 metres from a derelict site (Table 9).

8.3 People’s proximity to derelict land varies significantly by authority. The councils with the highest proportion of their population living within 500m of derelict land are North Lanarkshire (73.7%), Glasgow City (55.5%) and Inverclyde (53.1%) whereas the figure for City of Edinburgh is 5.6%. In Na h-Eileanan Siar none of the population lives within 500 metres of a derelict site.

8.4 In 2015, an estimated 29.7% of Scotland’s population lived within 500 metres of a derelict site. This has decreased to 27.2% in 2021 (Table 10).

8.5 The increase recorded in Inverclyde in 2016 is due to the addition of three new sites all close to residential areas and changes made to site types for several older (pre 2001) sites from vacant to derelict as well as increases in the size of some older sites. The increase in Dumfries and Galloway in 2017 is due to the addition of 16 new derelict sites.

8.6 From 2013, long term derelict sites have been considered to be those recorded as derelict prior to 2001. For the years 2015 to 2021 the percentage of Scotland’s population that were estimated to live within 500 metres of a site that was long term derelict fell by 2.2 percentage points from 2015 to 2021 to 13.5%.

8.7 People’s proximity to long term derelict land varies significantly by authority. Those councils with the largest percentage of people within 500 metres of a long term derelict site are West Dunbartonshire (37.8%), Glasgow City (36.8%), North Lanarkshire (30.7%) and Inverclyde (30.0%).

Table 9 - Estimated percentage of local authority population living within various distances of Derelict Land, 2021 [Note 20] [Note 24]
Planning Authority Population Less than 500 meters 500 meters to less than 1,000 meters 1,000 meters or further
Aberdeen City 229,060 22.6 20.9 56.6
Aberdeenshire 260,780 9.3 11.7 79.0
Angus 115,820 20.2 22.4 57.3
Argyll and Bute 85,430 5.0 7.4 87.7
Clackmannanshire 51,290 27.5 34.5 38.0
Dumfries and Galloway 148,290 25.7 24.6 49.6
Dundee City 148,820 31.2 40.8 27.9
East Ayrshire 121,600 18.0 22.5 59.4
East Dunbartonshire 108,750 3.1 15.6 81.3
East Lothian 107,900 18.0 27.1 54.8
East Renfrewshire 96,060 23.1 27.2 49.8
City of Edinburgh 527,620 5.6 14.8 79.6
Falkirk 160,560 23.4 35.0 41.6
Fife 374,130 28.6 28.7 42.6
Glasgow City 635,640 55.5 35.0 9.5
Highland 235,430 10.9 15.2 73.9
Inverclyde 77,060 53.1 29.1 17.8
Midlothian 93,150 30.7 34.0 35.3
Moray 95,710 6.6 14.5 78.9
Na h-Eileanan Siar 26,500 0.0 0.0 100.0
North Ayrshire 134,250 42.3 33.3 24.4
North Lanarkshire 341,140 73.7 22.7 3.7
Orkney Islands 22,400 0.1 0.0 99.8
Perth and Kinross 151,910 13.2 25.6 61.1
Renfrewshire 179,390 21.3 29.6 49.1
Scottish Borders 115,240 32.7 14.6 52.7
Shetland Islands 22,870 0.8 4.5 94.7
South Ayrshire 112,140 37.3 25.2 37.5
South Lanarkshire 320,820 19.7 23.8 56.6
Stirling 94,080 7.7 11.8 80.5
West Dunbartonshire 88,340 52.5 35.2 12.3
West Lothian 183,820 14.6 21.4 63.9
Scotland 5,466,000 27.2 24.0 48.8

General notes - at sections 3 and 4 apply.

Specific note 20 - Glasgow conducted a partial survey in 2021 and some sites were recorded as re-used but no new sites were added due to difficulty with resource for the survey. Dundee City and West Lothian have not updated their survey since 2019 so no new data is available on new site in 2021. Details of survey return rates back to 2015 are shown at Annex D.

Specific note 24 - six authorities reported various impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on their survey return in 2021. More details are provided at sections 3 and 4. These impacts should be borne in mind when using and interpreting the figures for these authorities in the year 2021, when comparing the 2021 figure to other years and when interpreting the Scotland total for 2021.

Table 10 – Estimated percentage of local authority population living within 500m of derelict land, 2015-2021 [Note 20] [Note 21] [Note 24]

Percentage of population within 500 meters of any Derelict site
Planning Authority 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
Aberdeen City 26.4 26.6 24.4 23.3 23.5 22.6
Aberdeenshire 6.8 8.2 10.2 11.1 10.5 9.3
Angus 18.9 21.1 19.2 19.1 18.3 20.2
Argyll and Bute 8.9 9.2 9.0 8.5 8.5 5.0
Clackmannanshire 35.0 36.0 34.1 28.5 27.5 27.5
Dumfries and Galloway 8.7 8.6 21.4 21.3 21.4 25.7
Dundee City 31.4 31.9 28.8 32.5 31.1 31.2
East Ayrshire 28.0 28.2 26.2 22.8 21.0 18.0
East Dunbartonshire 16.4 19.4 19.6 7.7 7.7 3.1
East Lothian 17.9 17.9 17.6 17.0 19.2 18.0
East Renfrewshire 22.3 22.6 22.0 21.8 21.8 23.1
City of Edinburgh 13.7 13.0 7.5 7.5 7.3 5.6
Falkirk 13.0 24.3 25.1 27.1 26.0 23.4
Fife 27.9 29.6 29.1 30.0 29.5 28.6
Glasgow City 61.8 61.1 61.7 60.1 54.7 55.5
Highland 12.6 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.5 10.9
Inverclyde 35.0 54.0 56.0 60.1 57.5 53.1
Midlothian 36.4 36.7 20.4 19.2 27.3 30.7
Moray 15.0 9.3 9.2 9.2 7.7 6.6
Na h-Eileanan Siar 4.7 4.6 4.5 1.6 1.6 -
North Ayrshire 39.5 39.3 39.7 43.5 41.7 42.3
North Lanarkshire 73.5 73.4 75.8 74.6 75.2 73.7
Orkney Islands 0.6 0.6 1.0 * * *
Perth and Kinross 15.2 14.8 12.8 9.9 13.2 13.2
Renfrewshire 30.9 31.2 26.3 25.9 23.0 21.3
Scottish Borders 38.4 40.2 38.9 39.1 39.3 32.7
Shetland Islands 0.8 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8
South Ayrshire 30.9 33.0 32.5 37.7 39.0 37.3
South Lanarkshire 27.9 26.7 28.9 26.5 24.8 19.7
Stirling 9.7 7.2 7.2 5.7 7.4 7.7
West Dunbartonshire 64.0 61.7 57.5 57.9 57.3 52.5
West Lothian 20.0 20.1 19.9 14.6 14.7 14.6
Scotland 29.7 30.3 29.8 29.1 28.4 27.2
Percentage of population within 500 meters of long term Derelict site
Planning Authority 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
Aberdeen City 7.7 7.7 7.6 5.0 4.8 4.1
Aberdeenshire 1.0 * * 0.7 0.7 0.7
Angus 11.7 12.0 9.7 9.6 9.0 8.6
Argyll and Bute 5.8 6.0 5.9 5.8 5.9 2.0
Clackmannanshire 13.0 6.6 9.1 9.2 - 9.7
Dumfries and Galloway 2.4 2.4 3.5 3.5 3.4 5.9
Dundee City 12.3 12.2 12.2 16.5 14.7 14.8
East Ayrshire 10.4 10.5 8.8 8.7 8.5 6.3
East Dunbartonshire 15.1 15.1 15.2 7.6 7.7 1.7
East Lothian 13.2 13.2 12.8 7.3 7.3 6.7
East Renfrewshire 13.2 12.3 12.2 12.0 11.9 10.7
City of Edinburgh 2.7 2.9 3.0 3.0 2.7 2.6
Falkirk 9.9 11.6 13.3 10.4 13.1 12.8
Fife 11.0 9.7 12.5 12.3 12.1 12.7
Glasgow City 40.6 40.0 40.0 39.4 36.7 36.8
Highland 9.8 9.6 9.7 9.7 9.7 7.9
Inverclyde 22.8 32.6 33.3 33.2 33.3 30.0
Midlothian 29.0 27.9 17.0 10.7 10.9 8.7
Moray 2.5 - - - - -
Na h-Eileanan Siar 3.9 3.8 3.8 1.6 1.6 -
North Ayrshire 21.0 20.8 20.8 18.3 18.4 15.9
North Lanarkshire 34.0 34.6 33.6 32.4 32.9 30.7
Orkney Islands 0.6 0.6 1.0 * * *
Perth and Kinross 5.4 4.7 4.5 3.6 3.4 3.4
Renfrewshire 21.2 21.5 17.3 15.0 15.0 13.2
Scottish Borders 22.8 22.5 20.4 20.2 20.2 19.6
Shetland Islands 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.7
South Ayrshire 16.2 20.4 20.5 20.7 19.3 17.3
South Lanarkshire 13.1 12.7 13.5 13.4 12.2 10.3
Stirling 4.9 3.6 3.5 3.1 4.5 5.1
West Dunbartonshire 42.3 40.5 39.6 38.3 37.8 37.8
West Lothian 9.9 9.9 9.8 8.8 8.8 8.7
Scotland 15.7 15.6 15.4 14.9 14.4 13.5

General notes - at sections 3 and 4 apply.

Specific note 20 - Glasgow conducted a partial survey in 2021 and some sites were recorded as re-used but no new sites were added due to difficulty with resource for the survey. Dundee City and West Lothian have not updated their survey since 2019 so no new data is available on new site in 2021. Details of survey return rates back to 2015 are shown at Annex D.

Specific note 21 - analysis of distance of population to derelict land was not carried out in 2020 due to the lower rate of survey returns during the Covid pandemic. The dotted line indicates that there is a break in the series between 2019 and 2021.

Specific note 24 - six authorities reported various impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on their survey return in 2021. More details are provided at sections 3 and 4. These impacts should be borne in mind when using and interpreting the figures for these authorities in the year 2021, when comparing the 2021 figure to other years and when interpreting the Scotland total for 2021.

Contact

Email: planstats@gov.uk

Back to top