Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Tables

Figures have been released on fuel poverty, energy efficiency, the condition of housing and other key descriptors of the occupied housing stock in Scotland at the Local Authority Level. This is the first release of information from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) Local Authority Tables for 2022- 2024.

Fuel poverty

In the period 2022-2024, the fuel poverty rate varied from 22% in Stirling to 51% in Orkney Islands compared to the average rate for Scotland of 31%.

In 2022-2024 eight local authorities had significantly higher fuel poverty rates than the national average; these were: Orkney Islands (51%), West Dunbartonshire (43%), Na h-Eileanan Siar (40%), Shetland Islands (40%), Dumfries & Galloway (38%), Dundee City (38%), East Ayrshire (38%) and Glasgow City (35%).

Five local authorities had significantly lower fuel poverty rates than the national average, these were: Stirling (22%), City of Edinburgh (24%), Perth & Kinross (24%), East Lothian (25%) and Angus (26%).

Energy Efficiency

Island and rural local authorities generally had the highest proportion of the least energy efficient dwellings (EPC F or G). A total of ten local authorities had rates above the national average (3%), with the highest being Dumfries & Galloway (14%), Na h-Eileanan Siar (13%), Orkney Islands (12%) and Highland (9%). These local authorities also had lower proportions of properties in the highest efficiency bands than the national average (EPC A, B or C).

Conversely, seven local authorities had higher than average proportions of A, B or C rated dwellings with North Lanarkshire (69%) being the highest compared to 55% for the national average.

Disrepair

In the period 2022-2024, an average of 55% of dwellings in Scotland failed the SHQS.

West Lothian (42%), Clackmannanshire (45%), East Dunbartonshire (46%) and Stirling (49%) had failure rates lower than the Scottish average.

Five local authorities had failure rates higher than the Scotland average, East Lothian (66%), Argyll & Bute (65%), Dumfries & Galloway (65%), North Ayrshire (63%) and Shetland Islands (63%).

In the period 2022-2024, an average of 28% of dwellings in Scotland failed the Tolerable Standard. Highland (21%), Fife (20%), Moray (20%), West Dunbartonshire (20%), Shetland Islands (19%), West Lothian (18%) and Dundee City (17%) had failure rates lower than the Scottish average.

Two local authorities had failure rates higher than the Scotland average: East Lothian (39%) and Glasgow City (34%).

Background

Scottish House Condition Survey Local Authority Tables 2022-2024

• The Scottish House Condition Survey is a sample survey; hence all figures are subject to a degree of uncertainty due to sampling variability. It is a two-part survey combining both an interview with occupants and a physical inspection of dwellings. The sample size in 2024 was 2,902 dwellings where both an interview and a physical survey were conducted.

• The local authority tables provide key indicators at local authority level relating to households and dwelling types. To produce the analysis, three years of data are combined to mitigate the smaller sample sizes involved when analysing sub-national geographies. In this case, survey data from the period 2022-2024 are averaged. Consequently, the national rates presented in the report, and in the Excel tables, will not match those found in the main Key Findings report.

• Due to Covid-19 restrictions the 2020 SHS and the 2021 SHS were undertaken using a push to telephone/video approach. It was not possible to resume the 2020 SHCS but the 2021 SHCS was undertaken using an external+ approach. For further details see the section on external+ data quality in the 2021 report.

• The lack of SHCS data for 2020 and the enforced changes for 2021 cause issues with the production of the LA Tables, as they require three consecutive years of survey data to be combined to provide a three-year average. The lack of SHCS data for 2020 and the enforced changes for 2021 meant we could not produce local authority estimates between 2019-2021 and 2021-2023 for two reasons. Firstly, there is no SHCS data for 2020 so we cannot produce a three-year average for the 2019 to 2022 survey years. Secondly, the data from the 2021 external+ SHCS is not directly comparable with that from other survey years due to the methodological differences and it would therefore not be appropriate to combine it with the data for 2022 or 2023 to produce a multi-year average. Therefore, this publication is the first LA tables publication since the 2017-19 Tables were published in 2021.

Accessibility

• We have made changes to the key findings report to make it more accessible, particularly to the supporting tables.
• We would welcome feedback from users on these changes and any other aspects of outputs from the SHCS. We can be contacted by emailing shcs@gov.scot.

Accredited Official Statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.