The Scottish Government

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1 Key Indicators of the Scottish Housing Stock

10. Tables 2, 3, 4 and Figure 1 show the age of the current housing stock by dwelling type ³. They show that detached houses have dominated new-builds since 1982. Definitions of the dwelling types used in the SHCS can be found in paragraph 84.

Table 2: Type of dwelling by age of dwelling (000s)

Table 3: Type of dwelling by age of dwelling (%)

Table 4: Type of dwelling by age of dwelling (Col %)

Figure 1: Type of dwelling by age of dwelling (000s)

11. Table 5 shows type of dwelling by urban/rural indicator. Dwelling types are grouped into 'house' or 'flat' where 'house' includes detached, semi-detached and terraces and 'flat' includes tenements, 4-in-a-block, towers/slabs and flats from conversions. Two thirds of dwellings in Scotland are houses. Flats make up more than half of the stock (55%) in the four main cities (large urban areas). Houses account for the majority of the stock in all other areas. Almost all dwellings in 'Remote Rural' and 'Very Remote Rural' areas are houses.

Table 5: Type of dwelling by 8-category urban/rural indicator (000s and %)

12. The SHCS uses the 8-category Scottish Executive Urban/Rural Classification 2003-4 ⁴. The definitions of the 8 categories are shown in Table 6 below. When looking for different characteristics in urban and rural areas, it can be more useful to group the 8 categories into 2 gross urban and rural categories. This requires a definition of what constitutes urban and rural. The Scottish Government's core definition of rurality classifies settlements of less than 3,000 people as rural. The 8-category urban/rural classification can be collapsed to the core definition in the following manner:

• Urban = Large Urban Areas, Other Urban Areas, Accessible Small Towns, Remote Small Towns, Very Remote Small Towns i.e. categories 1 to 5;
• Rural = Accessible Rural, Remote Rural, Very Remote Rural i.e. categories 6 to 8.

This two way urban/rural split is also shown in Table 5.

Table 6: Scottish Executive 8 category Urban/Rural Classification 2003-4

13. The full classification can be grouped in differing ways to meet user needs, for example a six category version can be used. In that version, 'Remote Small Towns' and 'Very Remote Small Towns' are grouped into 'Remote Small Towns'; and 'Remote Rural' and 'Very Remote Rural' are grouped into 'Remote Rural'. In this report any urban/rural breakdown uses the core definition of rurality outlined in the previous paragraph.

14. Tables 2-5 and Figure 1 show data from the SHCS physical survey. As explained in paragraph 1, in addition to a physical inspection of the dwelling the SHCS also involves a social interview with one of the residents, either the highest income householder ( HIH) ⁵ or their partner. This 'social' interview covers a range of topics such as household characteristics, tenure, neighbourhood satisfaction, dwelling satisfaction, health status, income etc. Table 7 and Figure 2 give an example of purely 'social' data obtained from this interview. They show tenure broken down by the age group of the highest income householder.

Table 7: Tenure by age group of highest income householder (000s and %)

Figure 2: Tenure by age group of highest income householder (%)

15. Table 7 shows that those in the 16 to 30 age group are the least likely to be owner-occupiers: only 40% of highest income householders in this age group are owner-occupiers compared with nearly two thirds of Scotland as a whole. They are however much more likely than any other age group to be private renters, more than a quarter (27%) are private renters compared with less than 1 in 10 in all other age groups. Owner-occupation is the dominant tenure type in all other age groups and overall and, with the exception of the 16-30 year olds, private renting is the least common.

16. Table 8 shows a tenure split into private and social sectors by age of highest income householder. Social sector covers all dwellings which are rented from a local authority, housing association, housing co-operative or other public sector organisation such as the MOD, Forestry Commission etc. Private sector dwellings are those which are either owner-occupied or privately rented. Although the dominant tenure for all age groups is the private sector, those aged 16-30 and those in the eldest two groups are more likely than all other age groups and the population as a whole to be social renters.

Table 8: Tenure private/social split by age of highest income householder (000s and %)

17. The format of the SHCS allows the physical data recorded by surveyors to be combined with the social data from the interview with the householder. An example of such 'paired' data is given in Figure 3, Table 9 and Table 10 which show a measure of overcrowding called the 'Bedroom Standard'. The Bedroom Standard compares the actual number of bedrooms in the dwelling (which is data collected in the physical survey), with a required number of bedrooms based on the age, gender and marital status of each of the occupants of the dwelling (all of which are collected in the social interview). Non-compliance with the Bedroom Standard indicates that the dwelling is overcrowded. The definition of the Bedroom Standard used to produce this table is given in paragraph 85 in the Notes and Definitions section.

Figure 3: The Bedroom Standard Scotland 2005/6 (%)

18. Figure 3 shows that less than 1 in 20 dwellings (3%) in Scotland fail to meet the Bedroom Standard. Almost two thirds of dwellings have at least one bedroom more than required by the standard.

Table 9: Bedroom Standard by household type (000s)

Table 10: The Bedroom Standard by household type (%)

19. Table 9 and Table 10 show the 'Bedroom Standard' broken down by household type. Definitions of the household types used in the SHCS can be found in paragraph 86. More than a fifth (22%) of large family households fail to comply with the Bedroom Standard making them more likely to be overcrowded than any other household type. Single parent households are most likely to have exactly the number of bedrooms required by the standard with 69% of such household falling into this category. More than 1 in 10 households of two adults (whether either is a pensioner or not) have a surplus of three or more bedrooms.

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