THE Scottish Government has released the figures on fuel poverty, energy efficiency, the condition of housing and other key descriptors of the occupied housing stock in Scotland.
The findings come from the Scottish house condition survey (SHCS) of 2019. It found that the level of fuel poverty remained similar to that of 2018 – 24.6% or 613,000 households were fuel poor, with 12.4% or 311,000 households living in extreme poverty. This compares to the 25% fuel poor households in 2018.
The survey found that 45% of Scottish homes were in the highest energy efficiency bands (C or better) and half had an energy efficiency rating of 67 or higher. The share of those rated C or better increased from 24% in 2010 to 51% in 2019.
Disrepair to critical elements reduced from 57% in 2018 to 52% in 2019 but is similar to 2017 (50%). Less than half of these (19% of all dwellings) had urgent disrepair to critical elements and just 1% of all dwellings had extensive disrepair (at least a fifth of the area) to critical elements.
The Scottish Housing Quality Standard failure rate in the social sector stood at 41%, meaning a rise from the 35% in 2018. The Scottish Government said that data collected through the survey does not allow for abeyances and exemptions taken into account by the Scottish Housing Regulator. It added that it may not always be possible to identify the presence of cavity wall insulation and, if it is assumed that all social dwellings have insulated cavity walls where technically appropriate, the failure rate would be 28%.
