Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey 2011

6 Urban Vacant Land: Levels of Urban Vacant Land

6.1 This section focuses exclusively on urban vacant land, its levels over the past 7 years and its location within Scotland. As previously stated, urban vacant land is land which is unused for the purposes for which it is held and is viewed as an appropriate site for development. The land must either have had prior development on it or preparatory work has taken place in anticipation of future development. Unlike derelict land, urban vacant land is generally not in need of rehabilitation before new development can commence.

Chart 5: Local Authorities with the highest amount of Urban Vacant land, 2011

6.2 Table 10 shows the amount of urban vacant land in Scotland, split by local authority for the years 2005-2011. Chart 5 shows the ten councils with the highest amount of urban vacant land in 2011. In 2011, there were 2,513 hectares of urban vacant land recorded in Scotland. Glasgow City has the most urban vacant land with 635 hectares, followed by North Lanarkshire (290 hectares) and then North Ayrshire (212 hectares). In 2011, the largest piece of urban vacant land in Scotland was the Commonwealth Games Village site in Glasgow (30 hectares), followed by a site in Redburn, Irvine, North Ayrshire (23 hectares), Orchardbank Business Park in Forfar, Angus (22 hectares) and Claverhouse Business Park, Dundee (22 hectares).

6.3 Table 10 shows that in 2005 there were 2,717 hectares of urban vacant land in Scotland. This figure fell in most years to the 2008 low of 2,498 hectares. In the two years, 2009 and 2010, this trend was reversed, but has been followed by a fall of 66 hectares for the most recent year to 2,513 hectare in 2011. Between 2005 and 2011 there has been a overall 8% reduction in the amount of urban and vacant land in Scotland. A small number of councils did not participate in every survey between 2005-2011. In those cases, previous years' data is rolled forward until new data becomes available.

6.4 Changes in the relative amount of urban vacant land in Scotland show greater variation at council level. Some councils have seen their levels of urban vacant land in 2005 more than halve by 2011. The largest percentage decreases have been seen in Perth & Kinross, Aberdeen City, Highland, East Dunbartonshire and Midlothian. Some of the larger percentage changes for certain councils (for example Shetland Islands) are due to there only being a small base of recorded land in 2005.

Table 10: Total Urban Vacant land by local authority area, 2005-2011^1,2,3

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding.
2. See Annex Table E for details of council participation in different years.
3. During 2011, historical data for the years 2005-2010 were revised to remove sites that had been taken out of the survey for definitional reasons and to correct any revisions to the data highlighted in the 2011 survey returns. Further information on this process is available in the Annex along with un-amended historical data for the survey years of 1996-2004.
4. In 2011 LLTNP took responsibility for surveying vacant and derelict land within the park boundaries. These sites are no longer recorded in Argyll & Bute, Perth & Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire local authority boundaries, and are separately identifiable as LLTNP in 2011. In previous years, these sites were classified within the relevant local authority boundary.
5. Previous SVDLS bulletins have used 2002 instead of 2005 as the base year for percentage change and so these percentages should not be compared with those in previous bulletins.

6.5 Looking at the 6 councils with the most urban vacant land in 2005, Chart 6 shows the change since 2005 in total levels of urban vacant land. Glasgow City has consistently had the highest amount of urban vacant land in Scotland for the period 2005-2011. This authority reported 564 hectares of urban vacant land in 2005, increasing to 635 hectares (a net increase of 13%) by 2011. In contrast to Glasgow City, Highland has seen a 50% decrease in its level of urban vacant land during the past 7 years. North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire have also recorded small percentage decreases in their urban vacant land (8% and 4% respectively), whereas Dundee City and North Ayrshire have recorded small percentage increases (6% and 5% respectively). If the top six authorities from 2011 were plotted on this chart instead of the top six at 2005, South Lanarkshire (107 hectares, a decrease of 22% since 2005) would replace Highland.

Chart 6: Total level of Urban Vacant Land in top 6 (as at 2005) local authorities, 2005-2011