Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey 2019

Annex A – Data Quality and Processing

A.1. Data Quality

Local authorities may not update all historic site information every survey, consequently some site information may not be current. For example, a site may be sold and change ownership type. A change like this could happen without a local authority’s knowledge.

A.2 Local Authority response rate

The overall data quality for a particular year will depend on how many Local Authorities have updated their survey for that year. If a Local Authority does not update their data then data for the previous year is rolled forward. This will provide a reasonable estimate but will not take account of any changes in the latest year. Data quality will also be affected by the number of years since the last update. Highland has not updated their survey since 2015 so their data is carried over from their latest update in 2015.

Annex Table 5 records local authority annual participation in the survey each year since 2000.

A.3 Removal and Addition of Sites

The means by which new sites are detected are largely centred on the expert knowledge of local authority planning officers supported by the SVDLS guidelines which clearly state the definitions for the recording of derelict and urban vacant land. The survey relies on the consistent application of definitions between local authorities and within a local authority through subsequent years. The guidelines are regularly reviewed and modified to assist in the provision of uniform returns. Some of the changes reported in Annex C - sites removed for definitional reasons is the result of a reappraisal of the survey guidelines by local authorities prior to the 2019 survey. Since the last survey, there were a total of 22 sites (38 hectares) removed for definitional reasons. SVDLS guidance documents can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-vacant-and-derelict-land-survey-guidance-notes/.

A.4 Changes to Site Details

Changes in site details can cause difficulties in interpreting the data. The most notable are when two separate sites become joined by the inclusion of a further piece of vacant or derelict land, and alternatively when a single site has a central area brought back into use, such that the remaining disused area does not form a single contiguous site. The first of these scenarios may case difficulties if data regarding previous use etc. for the sites differ. Where this happens, details from the largest contributing site are used to describe the new, compound site. The introduction of GIS systems has allowed planning officers to improve data quality, leading to some changes in site sizes recorded.

A.5 Changes in Historic Data, 2013-2019

As part of the 2019 survey, work was undertaken to improve the quality of the data supplied in the previous 2013 to 2019 returns. This was done to allow for improved time series analysis. This included removing sites identified by the local authority as being previously incorrectly included in the survey, adding in sites that the local authorities indicated should have been included in previous surveys and correcting historic sizes as a result of more accurate boundary mapping. A number of site sizes were changed during this years’ survey as a result of more accurate mapping of the sites by local authorities through increased use of GIS tools. The revised data for 2013 to 2018 is used throughout the tables and time series analysis of this bulletin.

The SVDLS has been running continuously since 1993. Historical data on the amount of derelict and urban vacant land in Scotland for the years 2000 to 2012 is shown in Annex Table 1. Data for earlier years is available in previous publications. 1996 to 2004 data has remained unaltered since the 2004 survey publication. 2005 data was last revised in 2011 and each subsequent publication revised historical data for the six years preceding the publication with the 2019 publication updating historical data from 2013-2018. Thus care should be taken when comparing 2000-2012 data in Annex Table 1 to the data shown in this bulletin.

Annex Table 1 - Derelict and Urban Vacant Land by local authority, 2000-2012 ^1,2,3

Local Authority	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Aberdeen City	129	152	152	105	139	139	78	63	53	57	59	50	54
Aberdeenshire	145	143	122	118	118	49	78	91	90	66	66	81	83
Angus	213	215	216	156	155	172	161	166	165	164	172	170	173
Argyll and Bute	45	45	46	46	46	28	81	60	40	34	30	29	34
Clackmannanshire	57	55	76	78	71	34	34	30	38	32	28	29	21
Dumfries and Galloway	361	364	360	358	358	225	474	465	456	466	461	491	492
Dundee City	254	259	247	224	237	212	234	219	206	211	225	198	187
East Ayrshire	441	426	355	330	319	332	323	319	319	322	336	335	335
East Dunbartonshire	86	86	135	123	121	120	115	85	77	70	72	65	71
East Lothian	139	134	127	122	86	85	71	62	85	86	86	83	71
East Renfrewshire	33	32	40	46	56	60	57	56	54	53	54	54	55
City of Edinburgh	162	167	167	123	117	199	194	204	222	225	217	223	211
Falkirk	196	248	279	255	247	212	208	147	140	173	156	159	159
Fife	767	665	667	750	804	892	882	857	836	831	831	872	927
Glasgow City	1,476	1,392	1,383	1,345	1,315	1,313	1,286	1,270	1,332	1,355	1,329	1,305	1,239
Highland	813	813	1,181	1,154	1,147	1,110	1,071	1,369	1,369	1,392	1,454	1,455	1,455
Inverclyde	126	132	127	142	142	138	125	106	126	122	121	123	141
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	35	19
Midlothian	382	294	295	289	318	321	305	288	282	280	274	272	271
Moray	41	41	41	39	36	36	34	29	29	26	27	19	17
Na h-Eileanan Siar	11	11	11	11	12	11	11	11	11	11	10	10	10
North Ayrshire	391	418	428	555	542	547	1,190	1,279	1,300	1,316	1,316	1,353	1,355
North Lanarkshire	2,021	1,938	1,603	1,509	1,321	1,341	1,362	1,349	1,346	1,463	1,429	1,419	1,374
Orkney Islands	26	22	22	18	18	42	42	42	40	40	41	41	41
Perth and Kinross	139	106	111	109	114	96	88	78	40	51	49	50	50
Renfrewshire	400	428	989	1,007	1,025	976	959	950	940	962	965	956	981
Scottish Borders	79	69	69	65	65	59	55	108	89	100	88	84	86
Shetland Islands	-	-	2	2	2	2	9	9	9	9	9	9	8
South Ayrshire	164	156	152	144	144	135	135	123	114	87	96	97	97
South Lanarkshire	702	686	651	635	604	571	538	523	524	510	504	476	470
Stirling	210	200	203	210	203	188	182	166	164	176	177	175	177
West Dunbartonshire	225	216	224	222	220	229	241	223	219	221	212	194	193
West Lothian	809	496	573	556	560	654	657	632	617	618	477	478	485
Scotland	11,044	10,411	11,053	10,847	10,661	10,528	11,282	11,379	11,333	11,530	11,372	11,391	13,354

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding.

2. See Annex D for details of council participation in different years.

3. Care should be taken when comparing this data to that published for the years 2013-2019 in the main part of this bulletin. The data above has not been amended to take account of all land removed for definitional reasons or other previous reporting errors.

4. From 2011 Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park took responsibility for surveying vacant and derelict land within the park boundaries. Prior to 2011, these sites were classified within the relevant local authority boundary.

A.6 Land area eligible

Local authorities are asked to note all derelict land for the survey but to limit recording vacant land to land within settlements as defined in their latest council approved local plan. Consequently, the actual land area surveyed for vacant land is often considerably smaller than the total land area of each local authority, especially in more rural areas.

A.7 Coverage of Settlements

Local authorities were asked to survey for vacant land within all settlements defined in their latest council approved local plans. However, due to resource constraints some local authorities (particularly those covering large rural areas), were unable to do a full survey of every settlement for vacant land. All returned surveys covered every settlement with a population of 2,000 or more. To ensure consistency, the statistics presented on vacant land throughout this bulletin refer only to land located within settlements that have a population of at least 2,000 (according to the local plan). Some local authorities also undertook either a full or partial survey for vacant land in settlements of under 2,000 in population - these are reported separately from the rest of the bulletin in Annex Table 2.

It is estimated that approximately 17,400 hectares of land within settlements of under 2,000 in population were surveyed for vacant land in Scotland during 2019. From this area, local authorities reported a total of 309 hectares of vacant land across 84 sites. Aberdeenshire had the highest amount of reported vacant or derelict land within settlements of under 2,000 in population, with 178 hectares across 8 sites – this includes a large site at the former Edzell air base (170 hectares).

Of the 92 sites (319 hectares) of vacant land in settlements of under 2,000 in population reported in 2018, 11 sites (12 hectares) were either fully or partially brought back into use.

Annex Table 2 - Vacant Land within settlements of under 2,000 in population, 2019 ¹

Local Authority	Area (ha)	No. of Sites
Aberdeenshire	178	8
Angus	25	1
Clackmannanshire	*	1
East Ayrshire	17	8
East Dunbartonshire	2	1
City of Edinburgh	11	6
Falkirk	7	5
Fife	5	6
Highland2	18	7
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park	1	1
Moray	1	1
North Ayrshire	9	13
North Lanarkshire	9	4
Perth and Kinross	2	3
Scottish Borders	5	3
South Ayrshire	1	4
South Lanarkshire	8	10
West Lothian	10	2
All	309	84

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding.

2. Highland has not updated their survey since 2015 so their figures have been carried over from 2015.

A.8 Estimate of the proportion of local authority population living within a defined distance of a Derelict Site

Tables 9 and 10 in the publication show estimates by local authority of the percentage of their population living within various distances of derelict land. For Table 9 a circular buffer zone based on the area of each derelict site was drawn around the grid co-ordinate points supplied for that site. This gives an estimated boundary for each site therefore data should be treated with care as actual site boundaries are not being used. Table 10 used the same estimated site boundaries and also estimated the proportion of local authority population living in close proximity to land that has been derelict prior 2001. In addition to derelict sites which were identified as being derelict prior to 2001 the analysis also included sites where the length of time derelict is unknown but where the first site inspection occurred prior 2001.

To measure the proportion of each local authority population that lives within a certain distance of derelict land, a national data set was constructed that estimated the population of each property identified as likely to be residential in the latest National Records of Scotland (NRS) Address Register. Average household size figures were calculated by dividing NRS census (2011) population by census household counts at the Census Output Area (COA) level. All records in the Address Register that were identified as likely to be residential were assigned an estimated household size figure based on the average household size of the COA they fall within.

To ensure consistency with previously published population estimates, the latest available small-area estimates of population by NRS were used as a control factor on the calculated household size figures. For each property in the Address Register based dataset, the distance to the nearest estimated derelict site boundary was calculated, to highlight those properties within the defined distance of derelict land. Those properties’ estimated populations were then aggregated up by data zone to give a proportion of each data zone’s population (and hence each local authority’s population) estimated to live within the defined distance of derelict land.

Overall it is estimated that 28.4% of the population of Scotland live within 500 metres of a derelict site in 2019. The data published in Tables 9 and 10 on proximity will also be available at data zone level on the Scottish Government Statistics website at http://statistics.gov.scot/. The website will be updated with these results following the publication of this bulletin.

A.9 Deprivation Areas using Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD 2016)

Table 11 shows the amount of derelict and urban vacant land located within Scotland’s 15% most deprived data zones. Those data zones are identified using the 2016 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). The SIMD 2016 identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland. It contains 38 indicators in seven domains: Current Income, Employment, Health, Education, Skills and Training, Geographic Access to Services, Housing and Crime. Sites in the SVDLS are identified as being located within Scotland’s most deprived areas if their grid co-ordinate point (i.e. the centre of the site) falls within a 15% most deprived data zone. Care should be taken with this data as there are instances of sites crossing data zone boundaries, hence part of the site may be in a 15% most deprived data zone, whilst the other part could be outwith. Further information on the SIMD 2016 project can be found on the Scottish Government’s web page at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SIMD/Overview.

A.10 Land surveyed by Highland Council

Due to the large area of land covered by Highland council, a partial survey was carried out in each year between 2002 and 2005 (inclusive). Only derelict and urban vacant sites within settlements containing a population of 2,000 or over and derelict sites within the Inner Moray Firth area were surveyed. In 2006, the (then) Scottish Executive let a contract to consultants to survey derelict sites in outlying parts of Highland council area. This was the first time since 1993 that derelict sites were surveyed in the outlying areas of Highland council. Overall it meant that a complete survey was carried out in Highland during 2006 (in terms of what was presented in the main part of the 2006 bulletin on derelict and urban vacant land). Highland council surveyed all settlements of over 2,000 in population for derelict and urban vacant land and the Inner Moray Firth area for derelict land, the consultants surveyed the remaining outer rural areas for derelict land. In 2007 the previous practice was resumed with Highland council surveying for land within settlements containing a population of 2,000 or over and derelict sites within the Inner Moray Firth area. The 2006 results of the consultants’ work in most of the outer rural parts of Highland council were brought forward as the best possible estimate up to 2012. In 2013 Highland council submitted a survey based on visits made in preparation for the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan along with visits and knowledge from both Planning and Development and Housing and Property Services staff. Highland Council last updated their survey in 2015.

A.11 Land surveyed by Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority From 2011 Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park took responsibility for surveying vacant and derelict land within the park boundaries. These sites are no longer recorded in Argyll and Bute, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire local authority boundaries, and are separately identifiable as Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park from 2011. Prior to 2011 these sites were classified within the relevant local authority boundary.