Edinburgh Student Council Tax exemptions: FOI release

Information requested

1. Data on the number of properties in Edinburgh currently holding a student council tax exemption, with addresses (or as much of an indication as possible), as well as the number of bedrooms if you have it. This would be to enable me to analyse student densities in different areas and average commute distances to universities and public transport access. Ideally,  I would need the data going back as far as possible, and having been sampled on a monthly basis if possible (if not, yearly).

2. Data on the number of properties in Edinburgh with a council tax exemption, going back as far as possible, having been sampled on a monthly basis (if not, yearly).

3. Data on number of PRS beds in Edinburgh over time, going back as far as possible, having been sampled on a monthly basis (if not, yearly).

4. Data on the number of PBSA beds in Edinburgh over time, going back as far as possible, having been sampled on a monthly basis (if not, yearly).

Response

1. Data on the number of properties in Edinburgh currently holding a student council tax exemption, with addresses (or as much of an indication as possible), as well as the number of bedrooms if you have it. This would be to enable me to analyse student densities in different areas and average commute distances to universities and public transport access. Ideally, I would need the data going back as far as possible, and having been sampled on a monthly basis if possible (if not, yearly). 

2. Data on the number of properties in Edinburgh with a council tax exemption, going back as far as possible, having been sampled on a monthly basis (if not, yearly).

The below table outlines the total number of properties in Edinburgh with a council tax exemption from 2014 to 2023 and a further breakdown of those properties with a Council tax exemption occupied by students. It should be noted that data is not published by Scottish Government at this level of detail and is not validated to the same levels as published data.

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Total Exemptions	18,380	18,432	18,500	18,661	19,016	18,997	18,865	19,647	19,663	19,833
Exemptions - Dwellings occupied by students	8,312	7,423	7,196	7,464	7,304	6,835	6,809	7,245	12	6,763

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Although we do collect and publish information on Council Tax exemptions, these are statistics based on aggregate returns provided by local authorities.

We do not collect information on Council Tax exemptions addresses or number of bedrooms. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

3. Data on number of PRS beds in Edinburgh over time, going back as far as possible, having been sampled on a monthly basis (if not, yearly).

Private Rented Sector information on rents is collected and published at Broad Rental Market Area (BMRA) on an annual basis. The City of Edinburgh is part of Lothian BRMA, along with East Lothian and Midlothian. The statistics are available at: Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland, 2010 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Please refer to the supporting documents charts and tables excel spreadsheet for the information requested for Lothian BMRA. Please note that the information is published year ending September.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is an annual survey of the general population in Scotland, carried out since 1999. It aims to collect reliable and up-to[1]date information on a range of topics, through a random sample of people in private residences. It is a voluntary and interviewer-led survey. The SHS publishes a breakdown of households by tenure since 1999/2000, including a Local Authority breakdown. The information requested for the City of Edinburgh can be found in the housing section of the latest report: Supporting documents - Scottish Household Survey 2022: Key Findings - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Information on the Private Rented Sector bedroom size can be found here for 2013 to 2019: SHS Data Explorer (shinyapps.io) and the next comparable data point is for 2022, where data can be found in the housing section of the latest report: Supporting documents - Scottish Household Survey 2022: Key Findings - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Scottish Household Survey results for 2022 have been assessed to be comparable in the most part to 2019 and earlier years.

However, the 2022 results for tenure (numbers and percentages of households in each housing tenure category) should be treated with caution, as there is evidence to suggest that social rented and private rented households may be slightly under-represented in the 2022 achieved sample.

The Scottish Government also publish statistics on houses in multiple occupation licenses, which are published by local authority level. Time series data is available at: Housing statistics: Houses in multiple occupation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

4. Data on the number of PBSA beds in Edinburgh over time, going back as far as possible, having been sampled on a monthly basis (if not, yearly).

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The Scottish Government does not collect information on number of PBSA beds in total or by local authority area. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. You may wish to contact City of Edinburgh Council to request this information there Freedom of Information email is informationrights@edinburgh.gov.uk.

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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