SCORE Annual Summary Report 2014-15

Introduction

SCORE (Scottish Continuous Recording system) is a collection of information from Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) about the new lets they make in a given year. This document provides details of the information recorded by participating RSLs covering tenancies starting from 1st April 2014 up to 31st March 2015. It includes information on:

• the demographic characteristics of tenant households;
• the pathway by which a household has become a RSL tenant;
• the financial profile of tenant households;
• the type and condition of the property being let;
• the financial aspects of the let being made, including rent and affordability.

Main findings are set out on the next page and more detailed analysis forms the main body of the report. More information can be found in the updated SCORE web tables for 2014-15.

Cessation of SCORE

In March 2015 the Scottish Government took the decision to cease the SCORE data collection meaning that this 2014-15 publication will be the last. Further details are provided later in the document.

Main Findings

For 2014-15 unless otherwise stated:

• Single adult households accounted for 37.2% of all new lets. Another 20.5% of households were single parent families.
• Nearly two-fifths (37.3%) of new lets were made to employed households compared to 30.6% made to unemployed households. A further 15.0% of lets were to retired households and 9.4% to households with a disability or long term illness.
• Around two fifths (39.8%) of new lets were made to households reporting previously living in temporary or unsecured accommodation, including with immediate family (14.9%), in Bed & Breakfast or temporary accommodation (14.4%) or with friends or relatives (10.5%). A further 35.9% transferred from other social housing.
• Over-crowding (16.9%) was the most common main reason given for rehousing. A further 13.0% of households were rehoused for medical or health reasons.
• 28.7% of households housed by Registered Social Landlords in 2014-15 were homeless prior to taking up their tenancies, up very slightly from 27.7% in 2013-14.
• Flats accounted for almost three quarters (73.8%) of properties let during the year, with houses 20.6% and bungalows a further 4.4%.
• One bedroom properties accounted for 38.9% of lets and a further 4.4% were bedsits. Of all properties let, 40.1% had two bedrooms, 14.3% had three bedrooms and 2.3% had four or more bedrooms.
• 23.5% of new lets were allocated using Choice Based Lettings, which allows households to actively apply for properties that match their assessed requirements.
• Around 3 in 10 properties (30.8%) let during the year were let immediately after the previous tenants vacated the property (or immediately after the conclusion of any major repair works). Over two-fifths of properties (41.3%) were void for two weeks or more.
• The average weekly rent for Scottish Secure Tenancy General Needs new lettings, increased by 4.5% from £69.12 in 2013-14 to £72.18 in 2014-15.
• The average weekly household income of all households rose by 4.3% in 2014-15 to £236.32, compared with £226.58 in 2013-14. It varied from an average of £127.74 amongst unemployed households to £382.40 amongst those working full-time.
• 84.5% of full-time working households passed the affordability measure meaning that they did not need housing benefit in order for their rent to be affordable.

Background

The information for SCORE is recorded by RSLs in forms completed by housing officers and submitted to the Scottish Government via an online data collection tool.

Further information about the SCORE collection is available from the Scottish Government website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/SCORE

Response level

SCORE is a voluntary survey. For 2014-15, 19,564 lets were recorded. An approximate response rate can be calculated by comparing this with figures collected by the Scottish Housing Regulator as part of the Scottish Social Housing Charter. At present the latest figure available from the Charter is for 2013-14. This suggests a 2014-15 SCORE response rate of around 68%.

This is lower than in previous years with an estimated response rate of 78% in 2013-14. This may be because fewer lets were made in 2014-15 although the announcement of the cessation of SCORE may also have had an impact.

It should be noted that whilst a total of 19,564 SCORE forms were submitted many of these did not include completed income information. Income information was provided for 8,370 lettings (43% of forms).

Cessation of SCORE

In March 2015 the Scottish Government took the decision to cease the SCORE data collection meaning that the 2014-15 collection and this associated publication will be the last.

The key reasons for the SG cessation of SCORE are:

• A re-focussing of Communities Analytical Services, in line with Smith Commission report proposals, to provide staff resources to support analytical work on newly devolved social security powers.
• The availability of information on social rented tenants from other sources.
• The limitations of SCORE and advantages of alternative surveys and information.
• Reduction in burdens on SG and RSLs in ceasing this resource intensive data collection of manually entered records.

SG plans to fill the information gap left by ceasing SCORE, in terms of statistics on social rented tenants, by publishing information from alternative data sources in 2016, either as a new publication or incorporated with the annual SG Housing Statistics for Scotland publication.

Further information on the decision to end SCORE can be found here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/SCORE/SCOREcessation