The Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build scheme: FOI release

Information requested

The following information in regard to new build housing:

a) How many homes were built under the Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build scheme in each of the last five years?

b) What percentage of homes built in each of the last five years were under the Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build scheme?

c) What is the average waiting time for entry into social housing in each of the last five years?

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

a) How many homes were built under the Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build scheme in each of the last five years?

Under the rules of the Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme builders could register to take part in the scheme and eligible home buyers would apply for assistance to purchase an eligible property from a registered builder. The homes were not specifically built for the Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme. The numbers purchased with assistance from the scheme each year are published and available at Help to Buy (Scotland) - Homeowners - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

b) What percentage of homes built in each of the last five years were under the Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build scheme?

The Scottish Government does not hold the exact information requested however we publish quarterly and annual housing statistics which include new housebuilding. The statistics can be found at Housing statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) with excel tables on new housebuilding under the 'Housing statistics: datasets' section of the page.

c) What is the average waiting time for entry into social housing in each of the last five years?

The Scottish Government does not collect the information requested on the average waiting time for entry into Social Housing as this is collated by each local authority and people may be on both housing association lists as well as council lists.

However, available published results from the Scottish Household Survey includes information on the proportions of time households have been on a housing list, by length of time category, including a split by current housing tenure of the household where sample sizes allow. This includes households already in social rented housing who wish to move to another social rented home. The 2020 household survey results are here (Tab 1_66 for length of time on a housing list), with results for earlier years 2016 to 2019 available on the Scottish Household Survey Data Explorer (Table 3.16d). Tables 3.16a to 3.18b provide additional information about households and adults on waiting lists, including table 3.16e with information on the main reason for households being on a housing list. The results on the proportions of time are based on households who have reported being on a housing list (which will include housing association lists as well as council lists), and exclude any households who have reported using choice based lettings where not already on a housing list.

The published Scottish Household Survey results also include information for each year on the total number and percentage of households and adults in Scotland who have reported to be on a housing list, or who have applied for social housing under a choice based letting scheme or similar in the latest year. Available figures on the estimated absolute number of households and adults are available for the years 2013 to 2019 on the Annual Report 2019 Excel tables (Tab: Chapter 3 – Housing, tables 3.17 and 3.18, with choice based letting schemes or similar available from 2017), and estimated absolute number of households only for the year 2020 on the Scottish Household Survey 2020 Results Housing Tables (Tabs 1.60 for housing lists and 1.64 for choice based letting schemes or similar).

It should be noted that results of the SHS 2020 telephone survey are not directly comparable to SHS results for previous years as COVID restrictions prevented face-to-face interviews, which previous surveys used, and the change of mode could have affected the answers given. More information on this, and other methodological guidance, is available here. In addition, the figures for 2020 as well as earlier years will be subject to survey sampling variation.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.