Scottish House Condition Survey: Key Findings 2011

5 Housing Quality

5.1 The Scottish Housing Quality Standard

119. Two quality standards are set by the Scottish Government and monitored through the Scottish House Condition Survey.

120. The first is the tolerable standard which is a "condemnatory" standard. In other words, it is not reasonable to expect people to continue to live in a house that falls below it. The tolerable standard was redefined in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 and applies to all houses in Scotland. Local authorities have a statutory duty and specific powers to deal with houses that fall below the tolerable standard.

121. The second standard is the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) which was announced by the Minister for Communities in February 2004^[30]. A target was agreed that all social landlords must ensure that all their dwellings pass the SHQS by 2015. Private owners and private landlords are currently under no obligation to bring their properties up to a standard which meets the SHQS. However the same data is collected and reported for all dwellings to allow comparison across the housing stock.

122. The 2002 SHCS failure rate estimates were produced after the announcement^[31]. The 2003/4 survey field work began in October 2003, before the final clarification of the SHQS in July 2004^[32]. Thus, the 2002 and 2003/4 surveys did not gather all the data needed to fully assess dwellings against the SHQS. This was rectified for the 2004/5 survey and all later surveys including the 2011 survey.

123. The SHQS is an aggregation of the results from about 60 different programme modules aggregated into 5 higher-level classifications which in turn provide a single pass/fail classification for all dwellings. The 5 higher-level criteria are that the dwelling must be:

• above the statutory tolerable standard;^[33]
• free from serious disrepair;
• energy efficient;
• with modern facilities and services;
• healthy, safe and secure.

124. The tolerable standard definition was amended by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 to include additional criteria, covering thermal performance and electrical safety^[34]. As the amendment was not implemented until April 2009, the results from the 2010 survey were the first year to be based on the amended standard. The change in definition caused the fail rate for the standard to increase from 0.7% in 2009 to 3.9% in 2010.

125. In 2011, 72,000 homes were found to be below tolerable standard (BTS), amounting to 3% of the housing stock (Table 30).

Table 30 Below Tolerable Standard Housing by Tenure and Age of Dwelling

		Below Tolerable Standard			Row Sample
		000s	Failure by Group	% of BTS Stock
Tenure	Owner-occupier	51	3.5%	71%	2050
	LA/other public	5	1.5%	7%	464
	HA/co-op	2	0.6%	2%	354
	Private-rented	14	5.0%	20%	342
Age of Dwelling	pre-1919	35	7.8%	49%	585
	1919-1944	16	5.4%	23%	420
	1945-1964	9	1.8%	13%	745
	1965-1982	6	1.1%	9%	768
	post 1982	5	0.9%	7%	692
Whole Stock		72	3.0%	100%	3210

Source: SHCS 2011

126. 5% of private rented dwellings fail the tolerable standard, the highest failure rate by sector. These 14,000 homes account for 20% of the BTS stock.

127. Around 8% of pre-1919 dwellings fail the tolerable standard; these account for almost half (49%) of the dwellings that fail.

Table 31 Scottish Housing Quality Standard 2008 - 2011 (000s and % failure)

Tenure	SHQS Failure	Survey Year
		2008	2009	2010	2011
Owner-occupier	Housholds (000s)	957	885	857	855
	%	65	62	59	59
LA/other public	Housholds (000s)	237	247	253	194
	%	69	69	69	58
HA/co-op	Housholds (000s)	146	141	140	118
	%	51	52	53	45
Private-rented	Housholds (000s)	153	157	157	181
	%	72	64	67	65
Private Sector	Housholds (000s)	1,109	1,042	1,014	1,037
	%	66	62	60	60
Social Sector	Housholds (000s)	383	388	393	313
	%	61	62	62	52
All housing	Housholds (000s)	1,493	1,429	1,407	1,349
	%	64	62	61	58
Total		2,331	2,344	2,357	2,368
Sample size		3,015	3,346	3,115	3,219

Source: Continuous SHCS

128. About 58% of the Scottish housing stock failed the SHQS in 2011. This was a significant decrease from 61% of dwellings in 2010. In 2011, the private rented sector had the highest failure rate at 65% (Table 31 and Figure 14).

129. Figure 14 shows steady decrease in the number of houses failing the SHQS. In 2004/05 around 75% of dwellings failed the SHQS compared to 58% in 2011.

Figure 14 SHQS failures 2003/04 to 2011 by Tenure (%)

Source: Continuous SHCS

130. Table 32 shows that both tenure groups show an increased pass rate, but social housing is improving far faster overall. The proportion of dwellings failing the SHQS fell from around three quarters of both private and social sector dwellings in 2004/05 to 60% of private and 52% social failing in 2011.

131. The majority of dwellings that failed the SHQS failed the energy efficiency criterion. Full and efficient central heating^[35] as well as minimum levels of thermal insulation - such as loft, hot water tank and wall insulation (where applicable) - are required. While this remains the most failed element, passes have increased across the board, most notably in the social sector where the pass rate has improved by 6 percentage points between 2009 and 2011.

Table 32 Scottish Housing Quality Standard element failure rate by tenure 2004/05 to 2011 (%)

		SHQS Element Failures (%)
		2004/5	2005/6	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
All tenures	SHQS Overall Fail	74	70	68	64	61	60	58
	Below Tolerable Standard	1	0	1	1	1	4	3
	Free from Serious Disrepair	3	2	3	3	2	3	3
	Energy Efficient	57	54	52	51	48	48	45
	Modern Facilities and Services	23	22	19	14	13	12	11
	Healthy, Safe and Secure	28	27	24	24	21	20	19
Private Sector	SHQS Overall Fail	74	71	67	66	61	59	60
	Below Tolerable Standard	1	1	1	1	1	4	4
	Free from Serious Disrepair	3	2	4	3	2	3	3
	Energy Efficient	61	57	53	55	50	49	48
	Modern Facilities and Services	18	18	15	11	10	10	10
	Healthy, Safe and Secure	28	26	23	23	21	19	19
Social Sector	SHQS Overall Fail	73	67	70	60	60	60	52
	Below Tolerable Standard	0	0	1	0	1	2	1
	Free from Serious Disrepair	2	3	2	2	2	3	1
	Energy Efficient	48	46	48	40	42	44	36
	Modern Facilities and Services	38	32	29	22	21	15	12
	Healthy, Safe and Secure	28	29	27	25	22	23	18

Source: Continuous SHCS

132. The proportion of dwellings failing the modern facilities and services criterion of the SHQS has also fallen since 2004/05 in both the social and private sectors. Overall it fell from 23% in 2004/5 to 11% of dwellings in 2011 (Table 32). The change from 2007 (19%) to 2011 (11%) is statistically significant.

133. Table 33 shows that the proportion of dwellings with more than one criterion failure has fallen since 2004/05. In 2011, 40% of dwellings failed on only one of the five higher-level criteria and 13% on two criteria. As a result, the number of SHQS element failures (as opposed to failing properties) has reduced from about 2.6 million to 1.9 million (Table 33)^[36].

134. Table 34 shows that dwellings in rural areas are significantly more likely to fail the SHQS than in urban areas.

Table 33 SHQS criterion failures 2008-2011 (000s and Column %)

SHQS Criterion Failures	2004/5		2005/6		2007		2008		2009		2010		2011
	000's	%	000's	%	000's	%	000's	%	000's	%	000's	%	000's	%
No failures/ unobtainable	605	26	692	30	750	32	838	36	915	39	951	40	1,019	43
1 Failure	1,025	45	991	43	1,008	44	980	42	988	42	938	40	942	40
2 Failures	484	21	456	20	404	17	376	16	343	15	346	15	301	13
3 Failures	162	7	162	7	140	6	124	5	90	4	97	4	86	4
4 Failures	24	1	13	1	11	0	10	0	8	0	20	1	17	1
5 Failures	1	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	6	0	4	0
Failures sub-total	1,696	74	1,622	70	1,564	68	1,493	64	1,429	61	1,407	60	1,349	57
Total SHQS criterion failures	2,578		2,444		2,286		2,156		1,976		2,031		1,888
Total dwellings	2,301	100	2,315	100	2,314	100	2,331	100	2,344	100	2,357	100	2,368	100
Sample size	3,093		3,147		3,033		3,015		3,346		3,115		3,219

Source: Continuous SHCS

Table 34 SHQS urban/rural breakdown (000s and %)

	Urban		Rural		Unweighted
	000's	%	000's	%
Pass	836	43	145	37	1,321
Fail	1,101	57	249	63	1,855
Total	1,970	100	398	100	3,219
Unweighted Sample size	2,462		714

Source: SHCS 2011

5.2 Dampness and Condensation

135. 'Any condensation' and 'Any rising or penetrating damp' can cover anything from a small damp patch or area of condensation on a single wall in one room (caused for example by ineffective ventilation whilst cooking) to prevalence throughout a dwelling, so is not necessarily a serious housing quality issue in all cases.

136. Rising damp is the result of defective or missing damp proof coursing leading to water leaching into the building fabric. Penetrating damp is usually the result of a defect in the building fabric, such as damage to the walls or roof, water ingress due to damaged seals on doors or windows or damp as a result of leaking plumbing.

137. Table 35 and Table 36 indicate that just over 1 in 10 dwellings had condensation in at least one room, whilst few dwellings in Scotland suffered from either rising or penetrating damp (around 1 in 30). These figures are largely unchanged from those reported from 2002 to 2010.

Table 35 Presence of condensation in dwelling (000s and %)

Any condensation?	000s	%	unweighted Sample size
None	2,106	89	2,871
Some	262	11	348
Total	2,368	100	3,219

Source: SHCS 2011

Table 36 Presence of rising or penetrating damp in dwelling (000s and %)

Any rising or penetrating damp?	000s	%	Sample size
None	2,289	97	3,095
Some	79	3	124
Total	2,368	100	3,219

Source: SHCS 2011

5.3 Disrepair

138. Data on the state of disrepair of each dwelling is gathered in the physical inspection part of the SHCS. For clarification, the definition of 'disrepair' here is not the same at that measured in SHQS (section 5.1 above) which requires a property to be 'free from serious disrepair' so the numbers and percentages will be different from the SHQS data^[37].

139. A range of elements - both internal and external - are assessed for the presence of disrepair, the urgency of disrepair (for external and common elements only), the extent of disrepair and in some cases the residual life of the element. These assessments allow an overall picture of the state of dwelling disrepair to be built up. We can therefore estimate the extent of disrepair of various types in Scotland's occupied housing stock. Definitions of the different types of disrepair are given in paragraph 189.

Table 37 Presence of any disrepair by age of dwelling, tenure and urban/rural indicator (000s and Row %)

	No disrepair		Disrepair		Total		Sample size
	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%
Age of Dwelling
Pre-1919	37	8	422	92	459	100	590
1919-1944	21	7	281	93	303	100	422
1945-1964	37	7	486	93	523	100	747
1965-1982	94	17	471	83	565	100	768
Post-1982	225	43	294	57	519	100	692
Tenure
Owner-occupier	302	21	1,167	79	1,468	100	2,054
LA/other public	34	10	311	90	345	100	464
HA/co-op	46	17	226	83	272	100	355
Private-rented	32	11	251	89	283	100	346
Private Sector	334	19	1,417	81	1,751	100	2,400
Social Sector	80	13	536	87	617	100	819
Urban/Rural
Urban	343	17	1,627	83	1,970	100	2,498
Rural	71	18	327	82	398	100	721
All Dwellings	414	17	1,954	83	2,368	100	3,219
Sample size	559		2,660		3,219

Source: SHCS 2011

140. 'Any disrepair' covers all disrepair, irrespective of extent or seriousness, and can therefore mean anything from a leaking bathroom tap to a missing roof.

141. Table 37 shows the presence of 'any disrepair' by age of dwelling. Just over eighty percent (83%) of dwellings in Scotland have some disrepair. Older dwellings are more likely to have some form of disrepair with 92% of those built before 1919 having some disrepair compared with 57% of dwellings built after 1982.

142. In the private sector, 81% of dwellings have some form of disrepair, compared to 87% of dwellings in the social sector.

143. Levels of 'any disrepair' in urban and rural areas are about the same.

144. For common and external elements the surveyor is asked to assess the urgency of disrepair. An urgent repair is one which, if not carried out, would cause the fabric of the building to deteriorate further and/or place the health and safety of the occupier at risk. Table 38 shows 'any disrepair' by 'urgency of disrepair'.

Table 38 Urgent disrepair in buildings with some disrepair (000s and Column %)

Any urgent disrepair	Any Disrepair		Total		Sample Size
	000s	%	000s	%
None	904	46	904	38	1,226
Some	939	48	939	40	1,278
Not Applicable	108	6	513	22	702
Unobtainable	3	0	12	1	13
Total	1,954	100	2,368	100	3,219
Sample size	2,660		3,219

Source: SHCS 2011

145. Figure 15(a-c) shows the presence of urgent disrepair, disrepair to critical elements and extensive disrepair in dwellings which have some form of disrepair (i.e. dwellings which have 'any disrepair' as defined above).

146. Critical elements are those whose condition is central to a dwelling being wind and weather proof, structurally stable and safeguarded against further rapid deterioration. Paragraph 189 lists the critical elements. The figures for critical disrepair are shown in Table 39 against dwelling and household characteristics.

147. 'Extensive disrepair' is used to identify dwellings where the disrepair present is of relatively greater severity. A detailed definition of extensive disrepair is given in paragraph 189.

148. Urgent disrepair, extensive disrepair and disrepair to critical elements are all subsets of 'any disrepair'.

149. In just under half of dwellings (48%) with some form of disrepair, that disrepair is urgent. Three quarters of dwellings with any disrepair have some disrepair to critical elements whilst around a third (32%) suffer from extensive disrepair (Figure 15(a-c)).

Figure 15 Of those dwellings with any disrepair: (a) urgency of disrepair (b) some disrepair to critical elements and (c) some extensive disrepair (%)

Source: SHCS 2011

Table 39 Disrepair to critical elements by age of dwelling, tenure and urban/rural indicator (000s and Row %)

	No disrepair to critical elements		Disrepair to critical elements		Total		Unweighted Sample size
	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%
Age of dwelling
Pre-1919	105	23	355	77	459	100	590
1919-1944	74	25	228	75	303	100	422
1945-1964	149	28	374	72	523	100	747
1965-1982	221	39	344	61	565	100	768
Post-1982	353	68	166	32	519	100	692
Tenure
Owner-occupier	605	41	863	59	1,468	100	2,054
LA/other public	91	26	254	74	345	100	464
HA/co-op	121	44	151	56	272	100	355
Private-rented	84	30	199	70	283	100	346
Private Sector	690	39	1,062	61	1,751	100	2,400
Social Sector	212	34	405	66	617	100	819
Urban/Rural
Urban	760	39	1,209	61	1,970	100	2,498
Rural	141	35	257	65	398	100	721
All Dwellings	902	38	1,467	62	2,368	100	3,219
Unweighted Sample size	1,205		2,014		3,219

Source: SHCS 2011

150. Table 39 shows that the likelihood of experiencing disrepair to critical elements increases with the age of the dwelling. More than three-quarters of pre-1919 dwellings have some form of disrepair to critical elements, compared to about one third of those built after 1982.

151. Just over half of owner-occupied dwellings and just over half of dwellings rented from housing associations and housing co-operatives have some form of critical disrepair compared with 70% of those which are rented from a private landlord and 74% of those rented from a local authority or other public sector organisation. Overall, dwellings in the social sector are more likely to have disrepair to critical elements than those in the private sector.

152.Table 40 shows that 26% of dwellings in Scotland have some extensive disrepair. Following the same trend as 'any disrepair' and 'disrepair to critical elements', newer dwellings are less likely to suffer from extensive disrepair. Of dwellings built before 1919, 38% have some extensive disrepair compared with just 8% of those built after 1982.

153. Owner-occupied, Housing Association and housing co-operative dwellings are least likely to have some extensive disrepair.

Table 40 Extensive disrepair by age of dwelling, tenure and urban/rural indicator (000s and Row %)

	No extensive disrepair		Some extensive disrepair		Total		Unweighted Sample size
	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%
Age of Dwelling
Pre-1919	285	62	174	38	459	100	590
1919-1944	196	65	107	35	303	100	422
1945-1964	372	71	151	29	523	100	747
1965-1982	423	75	142	25	565	100	768
Post-1982	476	92	42	8	519	100	692
Tenure
Owner-occupier	1,143	78	325	22	1,468	100	2,054
LA/other public	232	67	113	33	345	100	464
HA/co-op	200	74	72	26	272	100	355
Private-rented	178	63	106	37	283	100	346
Private Sector	1,320	75	431	25	1,751	100	2,400
Social Sector	432	70	185	30	617	100	819
Urban/Rural
Urban	1,466	74	503	26	1,970	100	2,498
Rural	286	72	113	28	398	100	721
All Dwellings	1,752	74	616	26	2,368	100	3,219
Unweighted Sample size	2,399		820		3,219

Source: SHCS 2011

154. For 57% of dwellings with some disrepair to critical elements the disrepair is urgent (Figure 16).

Figure 16 Urgent disrepair in dwellings with some form of disrepair to critical elements (%)

Source: SHCS 2011

155. In 66% of dwellings with extensive disrepair, the disrepair is classed as 'urgent' (Figure 17).

Figure 17 Urgent disrepair in dwellings with some form of extensive disrepair (%)

Source: SHCS 2011

156. Figure 18 shows the proportion of dwellings in each age group which experience 'any disrepair', 'disrepair to critical elements' and 'extensive disrepair'.

Figure 18 Any disrepair, critical element and extensive disrepair by age of dwelling (%)

Source: SHCS 2011