Scottish Government

5 Urban Vacant Land: Levels of Urban Vacant Land

5.1 This section focuses exclusively on urban vacant land, its levels over the past 6 years and its location within Scotland. As previously stated, urban vacant land is land which is unused for the purposes for which it is held and is viewed as an appropriate site for development. The land must either have had prior development on it or preparatory work has taken place in anticipation of future development. Unlike derelict land, urban vacant land is generally not in need of rehabilitation before new development can commence.

5.2 Table 10 (overleaf) shows the amount of urban vacant land in Scotland, split by local authority for the years 2002-2007. Chart 7 shows the ten councils with the highest amount of urban vacant land in 2007. In 2007, there were 2,660 hectares of urban vacant land recorded in Scotland. Glasgow City has the most urban vacant land with 569 hectares, followed by North Lanarkshire (344 hectares) and then North Ayrshire (213 hectares). In 2007, the largest piece of urban vacant land in Scotland was the Interlink Industrial Estate site in North Lanarkshire, (26 hectares) followed by a site at Heathhall (Dumfries) in Dumfries & Galloway (23 hectares) and a site in Redburn, Irvine (North Ayrshire, 23 hectares).

Chart 7: Urban Vacant land by local authority, 2007

Table 10: Total urban vacant land ¹ by local authority area, 2002-2007 ²

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding
2. See Annex Table E for details of council participation in different years.
3. During 2007, historical data for the years 2002-2006 was revised to remove sites that had been taken out of the survey for definitional reasons and to correct any other previous errors highlighted in the 2007 survey returns. Further information on this process is available in the Annex along with unamended historical data for the survey years of 1996-2001.

5.3 Table 10 shows that in 2002 there were 2,964 hectares of urban vacant land in Scotland. This figure has fluctuated somewhat in the intermediate period, however by 2007 it had dropped to 2,660 hectares (an overall net decrease of 304 hectares). This represents a net fall in levels of urban vacant land in Scotland of 10% between 2002 and 2007. A small number of councils did not participate in every survey between 2002-2007. In those cases, the most recent available data has been used to provide an estimate for the appropriate year.

5.4 Changes in the relative amount of urban vacant land in Scotland show greater variation at the council level. Some councils have seen their levels of urban vacant land in 2002 more than half by 2007. This includes East Lothian, Falkirk and West Dunbartonshire. Smaller but still relatively large decreases are seen in Aberdeen City, Highland, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire. Some of the larger relative changes for certain councils (for example Perth & Kinross) are due to there only being a small base of recorded land in 2002.

5.5 Looking at the 6 councils with the most urban vacant land in 2002, Chart 8 (overleaf) shows the change since 2002 in total levels of urban vacant land. Glasgow City has consistently had the highest amount of urban vacant land in Scotland for the period 2002-2007. This authority had 595 hectares of urban vacant land in 2002, falling slightly by 2007, with 569 hectares reported (a net decrease of 4%). In contrast to Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire has seen a clear decrease in its level of urban vacant land during the past 5 years. 498 hectares of urban vacant land were recorded within North Lanarkshire in 2002, decreasing to 344 hectares by 2007 (a net decrease of 31%). The remaining 4 councils in the chart below have split different ways in the past 6 reporting years. Highland and South Lanarkshire have shown clear decreases in the total amount of urban vacant land within their boundaries. There was a net drop of 92 hectares (-46%) in Highland, from 200 hectares in 2002 to 108 hectares by 2007. South Lanarkshire had a net drop of 45 hectares (-27%), from 167 hectares in 2002 to 122 hectares by 2007. A smaller decrease of 10 hectares (-5%) was recorded in Dundee City (from 187 hectares in 2002 to 178 hectares by 2007). Uniquely in Renfrewshire, more urban vacant land was recorded in 2007 than 2002 (increasing from 164 hectares in 2002 to 184 hectares by 2007).

Chart 8: Total Level of Urban Vacant Land in top 6 local authorities, 2002-2007