The number of student properties exempt from council tax: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002


Information requested

The number of properties that used an exemption from Council Tax because they:

  • A: Were students' halls of residence
  • B: Were occupied only by students or students and their non-British spouses, civil partners or dependants

for each Scottish local authority for the past ten years.

Response

The Scottish Government collected data from local authorities in Scotland on a) dwellings occupied by students with council tax exemptions and b) halls of residence with council tax exemptions in each of these ten years. However as the collection was an aggregate collection we do not have information on the spouses, civil partners or dependants of the students.

The attached Excel workbook shows the two tables compiled from data gathered from councils:

  • Dwellings occupied by students with Council Tax Exemptions
  • Halls of residence with Council Tax Exemptions

It should be noted that this specific subset of Council Tax data collected from councils is not published by the Scottish Government to this level of detail and hence is not subject to the stringent validation checks used in our published data. On account of this, you may see some figures that appear to be anomalies, for example the 2022 dwellings figure for City of Edinburgh. Please bear this caveat in mind if using the figures.

About FOI

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.

FOI 202300387754 - Information Released - Data

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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