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An Accredited Statistics Publication for Scotland

The Chief Statistician has released figures on fuel poverty, energy efficiency, the condition of housing and other key descriptors of the occupied housing stock in Scotland. This is the first release of information from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) for 2024.

Fuel poverty

In 2024 an estimated 28.7% (around 732,000 households) of all households were in fuel poverty. This is lower than the 2023 fuel poverty rate of 33.9% (around 859,000 households). This corresponds to a decrease of 127,000 (or five percentage points) in the number of households in fuel poverty.

14.0% (or 357,000 of the 732,000 households in fuel poverty) were living in extreme fuel poverty in 2024, which is lower than the 19.4% (491,000 households) in 2023. This corresponds to a decrease of 134,000 (or five percentage points) in the number of households in extreme fuel poverty.

This decrease in the fuel poverty rate largely reflects the fall in energy prices in 2024 wherein the average index price of fuels for Scotland decreased by 23.3% compared to 2023. 

Energy Efficiency

Around 1.4 million homes (56% of all homes) were rated as Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C or better in 2024 under SAP 2012 (RdSAP v9.93). Similar to 2023 figures.

Under SAP 2009, which allows for comparisons over a longer period, 62% of dwellings were rated C or better, up 38 percentage points since 2010. In the same period, the proportion of properties in the lowest EPC bands (E, F or G) has reduced from 27% in 2010 to 8% in 2024.

Disrepair

In 2024, 28% of all dwellings failed the tolerable standard similar to 2023 (27%). The most common reason for failure of the tolerable standard was under the satisfactory equipment for detecting and warning in the event of fire criteria which 532,000 dwellings failed (76%). This is followed by dwellings failing the satisfactory equipment for detecting and warningt against high levels of carbon monoxide criteria (55% or 383,000 dwellings).

For dwellings failing the smoke alarm criteria this represents a decrease of around 5 percentage points compared to 2023. However, the proportion of dwellings failing the carbon monoxide criteria was similar to 2023.

The Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) failure rate in the social sector was 41%, this has fallen from 60% in 2010. Failures of the Energy Efficient criterion were the biggest driver of failures overall. In 2024, 25% of social sector properties did not meet the Energy Efficient criterion.

Disrepair to critical elements, which are central to weather-tightness, structural stability and preventing deterioration of the property, stood at 48% in 2024. Less than half of these (19% of all dwellings) had urgent disrepair to critical elements and just 2% had extensive disrepair (covering at least a fifth of the element area) to critical elements.

Overall, this is an increase of around 3 percentage points compared to 2023, when 45% of dwellings had disrepair to critical elements.

Background

• 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.

Local authority estimates

• To note as previously advised, the lack of SHCS data for 2020 and the enforced changes for 2021 cause issues with the production of local authority estimates from the SHCS which use a three year pooled data set.
• As we now have a three year pooled data set (2022-2024), a Local Authority level analysis will follow this report. We expect these estimates to be published in mid 2026.

SHCS data on the UK data archive

• We will be depositing the microdata from the 2024 SHCS on the UK data archive and we will notify users when this is available.

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.