§ Lord Selkirk of Douglasasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total number of public sector houses which have been sold in Scotland since 1970; and [HL631]
What is the total number of Scottish public sector houses which have been sold to sitting tenants since 1970; and what percentage this represents of Scotland's public sector housing stock; and [HL632]
What is the percentage of home ownership as a percentage of all housing in Scotland; and [HL633]
What is the total number of housing association dwellings in Scotland. [HL634]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Scottish Office (Lord Sewel)Local authorities, Scottish Homes (formerly the Scottish Special Housing Association) and the New Town Development Corporations notified the Scottish Office of the sale of 423,860 houses in their ownership between January 1973 and March 1998. Information prior to 1973 is not held centrally.
Information on the status of the purchaser is not available prior to April 1979. Of the 418,542 house sales which were notified to the Scottish Office between April 1979 and March 1998, 356,643 were sales to sitting tenants, representing 35 per cent. of the public sector housing stock at September 1978.
The Scottish Office Statistical Bulletin (Housing Series HSG/1998/7) contains an estimate of the stock of dwellings by tenure. The most recent estimate is that 60.2 per cent. of dwellings were owner occupied at 31 December 1997.
According to Scottish Homes' Annual Report for 1997–98 on Scottish Housing Association Statistics, there were 117,937 housing association dwellings in Scotland at 31 March 1998.