Number of residential mobile homes: Information released
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
Would it be appropriate to state there are over 3,000 mobile homes in Scotland or is there a more appropriate figure?
Response
We do not have an up to date validated figure for the number of residential mobile homes in Scotland. For the purposes of this answer, we make the assumption that the number of pitches is roughly equivalent to the number of mobile homes i.e. where data has been gathered or published on pitch numbers, this is a good indicator of the number of mobile homes.
The figure of more than 3000 quoted is likely to originate from research commissioned by Consumer Focus Scotland and undertaken by IFF Research in 2013, which identified 92 park home sites in Scotland, housing an estimated 3,314 residential mobile homes. I attach a copy of this study at the end of this document. Although an estimation, these are the most up to date figures based on research evidence.
More recently, Newcastle University was commissioned by the Morris Leslie Group to explore the potential of Park Homes for retirement living in Scotland, with a particular focus on the planning system. Their study, published in 2019, mentions the Consumer Focus work as being the most reliable number available and highlights the limitations of the Census and the Residential Parks Guide, which is an alternative source for the number of mobile homes, in identifying the number of mobile homes.
Data gathered via a review of the Residential Parks Guide by Scottish Government officials in 2020 gives a much lower figure than 3000 pitches, between 1500 and 1600. As this estimate was based on numbers listed on websites in the public domain, this is likely to be an undercount. Scottish Confederation of Park Home Residents Associations, made a higher estimate of 6000 in 2022. This was based on a survey carried out on 12 sites which was then extrapolated to provide an estimate for the whole country. Therefore, this figure may not be representative of the overall pitch numbers in Scotland.
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Central Enquiry Unit
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The Scottish Government
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