Housing statistics 2016: key trends summary

Local Authority Lettings

During 2015-16 there were 26,258 permanent lettings made, a decrease of 3% compared to 27,006 lettings in the previous year.

38% of all local authority lettings made in 2015-16 were to homeless households, which is similar to the previous year. There were a total of 9,913 lettings to homeless households in 2015-16, a decrease of 5% on the 10,390 lettings in 2014-15.

Mirroring the falling stock levels, the number of local authority lettings decreased each year throughout the 2000s (Chart 14) until 2009-10. The number of lettings increased slightly each year between 2010-11 2013-14 then decreased. During 2015-16 there were 26,258 permanent lettings made, a decrease of 3% compared to 2014-15.

Chart 14: Permanent local authority lettings by source of tenant, 2001-02 to 2015-16

The proportion of lets allocated to homeless applicants is an important indicator in measuring local authorities' capacity to sustain the 2012 homelessness commitment whereby all unintentionally homeless households are entitled to settled accommodation. In 2015-16, 38% of all local authority lettings made were to homeless households which is similar to 2014-15. However the number of lettings to homeless households dropped by 5% from 10,390 in 2014-15 to 9,913 in 2015 -16.

This reduction is likely to be due to the corresponding decrease in homelessness applications reported in the Homelessness in Scotland: Annual Update 2015/2016 ^[5] . The decrease in applications is likely to be a consequence of a major Scotland wide approach to prevent homelessness. Through this, councils have been developing services, generally described as 'housing options services' in which staff assist households to consider the range of options available to address their housing needs. As a consequence, some of the households who might previously have made a homelessness application will now have their housing needs met without first becoming homeless or being threatened with homelessness.

Chart 15: Permanent local authority lettings, by source of tenant, 2015-16

Of the 26,258 permanent lettings made in Scotland in 2015-16, 25,958 (99%) were for Scottish Secure Tenancies ( SST) which are the standard local authority tenancies. Most of the remainder (259) were Short Scottish Secure Tenancies ( SSSTs).

These can be used by a local authority in place of a SST in certain circumstances. More information can be found here:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2002/08/sst/3

The majority of the SSSTs (81% or 211) were temporary lets for housing support.

Link to tables on local authority lettings:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/StockManagement

The Scottish Government publishes a range of information on Homelessness, including the number of lets for homeless households, collected through the HL1 return:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/RefTables