Scottish Government
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Scottish House Condition Survey

Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Scottish House Condition Survey: Key Findings 2010 as well as the SHCS Local Authority Report 2008-10.

The Key Findings Report includes key statistics on the condition of Scottish homes, the number of households living in fuel poverty, the number of dwellings failing the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), the energy efficiency of dwellings and other key descriptors of the occupied housing stock in Scotland.

The Local Authority Report contains similar figures but at local authority level covering the three year survey period 2008-2010.

The main findings are:

  • Approximately 39 per cent of dwellings passed the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) in 2010 which is an increase from 26 per cent of dwellings in 2004/5
  • The majority of dwellings that failed the SHQS did so on the energy efficiency criterion - 47 per cent of all dwellings
  • 658,000 households (28 per cent of households) were estimated to be in fuel poverty in 2010 a reduction from 33 per cent. However, forecast statistics suggest that based on current fuel prices fuel poverty is around 35 per cent
  • 185,000 households (8 per cent of all households) were estimated to be in extreme fuel poverty
  • The mean National Home Energy Rating (NHER) score in 2010 was 6.7 and 62 per cent of dwellings had a 'good' NHER score of 7-10, this is an increase from a mean of 6.5 and 56 per cent of dwellings rated good in 2009 - the increase is statistically significant
  • Since 2003/04 the number of dwellings with no loft insulation has more than halved and in 2010 represented just 3 per cent of dwellings which can have loft insulation. In 2010, 628,000 dwellings had 200mm or more loft insulation, a significant increase since 2003/4 when just 258,000 had this depth
  • The proportion of insulated cavity walls has increased from 53 per cent in 2007 to 62 per cent in 2010. The proportion of insulated solid walls has increased from 9 per cent in 2007 to 11 per cent in 2010
  • Improvements in the energy efficiency of both private and social rented dwellings has increased by 30 percentage points since 2002
  • 99 per cent of dwellings in urban areas are on or near the gas grid compared to 48 per cent of dwellings in rural areas. For all dwellings in Scotland, 90 per cent are on the gas grid

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