Scottish Government

4. Where we live

Introduction

This chapter looks at the housing circumstances and neighbourhood issues experienced by Scottish households. It examines housing tenure, the types of properties in which people live and the extent to which households have moved home. Households' views were also sought on their neighbourhood with regard to their likes and dislikes, and their perceptions of safety when traveling in their area in the evening.

Please refer to Chapter 2 for more information about interpreting the information in the tables in this section.

Housing

Figure 4-1 shows the tenure breakdown of Scotland's housing. Owner-occupation - either owned outright or buying with a mortgage - now accounts for just under two-thirds (65%) of tenure, while 27% of households rent from a social landlord and 6% rent from a private landlord. Just over a third (35%) of all households live in flats, with these properties featuring more strongly in large urban areas than in other areas ( Table 4.9 and Table 4.10).

Overall, 8% of adults have lived in their current residence for less than a year, while 11% have been resident for 31 years or more ( Table 4.12). Turnover is particularly high in the private rented sector where 44% have been in their current property for less than one year.

Using characteristics of the household such as the relationships between adults, the ages of children and the total number of adults and children, it is possible to estimate the extent to which dwellings are over-crowded or under-occupied. Using this approach, only 3% of households have fewer rooms than they require. Indeed, it is the norm for households to have at least one more bedroom than they require and almost two-thirds (65%) are in this position ( Table 4.14).

Households in rural areas are more likely to have more rooms than they require. Compared with 59% of households in large urban areas, 73% of households in accessible rural areas and 77% of households in remote rural areas have more rooms than they need ( Table 4.18).

Neighbourhoods

Adults' assessments of their neighbourhoods are overwhelmingly positive, with 92% saying their local area is either a 'very good' or 'fairly good' place to live but, as Table 4.27 shows, there is considerable variation between tenures, especially in the proportion saying their area is 'very good'. For example, 63% of outright owners rate their area as 'very good' and 55% of those buying their home with the help of a mortgage give their neighbourhood the same rating. In the rented sectors just over a third of social rented tenants say their area is 'very good' - 35% of those renting from a local authority or Scottish Homes and 33% of those renting from a housing association or co-operative.

Households in remote small towns and remote rural areas are the most likely say their local area is either a 'very good' or 'fairly good' place to live. Compared with 90% of households in large urban areas, 98% of households in remote rural areas say their area is 'very good' or 'fairly good' ( Table 4.28).

The most commonly mentioned 'likes' are that the area is 'quiet and peaceful' (56%), it is convenient for shopping (33%); good neighbours (33%) and that it has 'friendly people' (29%) ( Table 4.30). The main 'dislikes' mentioned are 'young people hanging around/nothing for young people to do' (14%) and 'vandalism' (8%) ( Table 4.32).

Local transport and personal safety

Table 4.56 and Table 4.61 show the extent to which adults use buses or trains in the evening. Overall, 79% of adults never use buses and 86% never travel by train in the evening.

When asked about their perceptions of how safe it is or would be to travel by bus or train in the evening, or to walk alone in their neighbourhood after dark, over 80% of adults who used public transport in the evening do thing it is safe ( Table 4.57 and Table 4.62) and over 70% of adults think it is safe to walk alone in their neighbourhood after dark ( Table 4.59).

Figure 4-1: Tenure of households

Table 4.1: Local authority by tenure¹⁰
Row percentages, 2003/2004 data Households

	Owned outright	Buying with help of loan/mortgage	Rent - Local Authority/ Scottish Homes	Rent - Housing Association, Co-op	Rent - private landlord	Other	Total	Base
Aberdeen City	24	40	24	3	8	1	100	1,232
Aberdeenshire	35	37	14	3	7	3	100	1,237
Angus	28	37	20	6	7	4	100	628
Argyll and Bute	33	31	18	4	10	3	100	551
Clackmannanshire	26	39	26	6	2	1	100	579
Dumfries and Galloway	38	28	17	6	8	4	100	815
Dundee City	26	29	25	10	10	1	100	866
East Ayrshire	21	39	31	4	3	1	100	696
East Dunbartonshire	38	45	10	2	1	2	100	553
East Lothian	34	37	17	3	6	3	100	549
East Renfrewshire	37	46	10	3	3	1	100	580
Edinburgh City	32	38	10	6	13	1	100	2,509
Eilean Siar	47	26	18	1	7	1	100	549
Falkirk	27	36	27	4	3	2	100	824
Fife	28	39	24	3	5	1	100	2,083
Glasgow City	20	31	17	22	8	2	100	3,294
Highland	34	37	15	4	8	3	100	1,167
Inverclyde	26	36	23	8	6	1	100	554
Midlothian	28	37	20	11	3	1	100	561
Moray	30	38	15	4	10	3	100	613
North Ayrshire	24	37	31	4	3	1	100	752
North Lanarkshire	21	39	31	4	3	3	100	1,758
Orkney	44	29	10	4	7	6	100	665
Perth and Kinross	34	42	12	4	5	3	100	674
Renfrewshire	24	42	22	7	3	1	100	1,000
Scottish Borders	29	34	7	20	8	3	100	663
Shetland	48	16	25	3	5	2	100	653
South Ayrshire	33	37	19	3	7	2	100	624
South Lanarkshire	26	43	24	3	3	1	100	1,587
Stirling	32	38	17	6	5	2	100	612
West Dunbartonshire	18	40	27	12	2	0	100	509
West Lothian	22	47	22	6	3	1	100	885
Scotland	28	37	20	7	6	2	100	30,822

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed. See base text of Table 4.46 for definition of homelessness.