FOI/202500482851 · FOI · cost limit
Local Authority vacant housing stock statistics: FOI release
Information requested
1. Provide any data the Scottish Government has about the amount of empty council houses there are in Scotland, and include how many there are?
2. Supply any analysis or any reports written by or for the Scottish Government about how many houses will be built in Scotland over the next five years, including any figures about how many houses are predicted to be built?
3. Supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government about how it is dealing with the housing emergency, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, briefings and analysis, from the last month?
Response
The Scottish Government publish data on local authority owned, empty council houses. You can find this data here: Housing statistics: Local authority vacant housing stock.
For ease, we have pulled together the table below with data on Scotland for vacant stock and reason for vacancy for voids to the end of March 2024. Please note further information on the length of time and local authority level data can be found in the published tables (as linked above).
Type Voids in Scotland (as at end March 2024) Temporary Accommodation 783 Awaiting Demolition 1,636 Forming part of a modernisation scheme 3,239 Low demand areas 452 Normal use stock 5,640 Other types 1 All Vacant 11,751
The Scottish housing regulator has published data on empty social rented homes in a report titled ‘Registered Social Landlords’ empty homes at 28 February 2025’. You can find this data here: registered-social-landlords-empty-homes-at-28-february-2025-report-and-data.pdf
Response to your request (2)
The Scottish Government has not carried out internal analysis or produced forecasts on how many homes are expected to be built in Scotland in the next five years.
Response to your request (3)
In this instance, the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Fulfilling your request would exceed this amount due to the amount of information that falls within the scope of the request. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit. Our aim is to provide information whenever possible, and you may wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that associated costs can be brought below £600. For example, by asking for information about a specific policy or by significantly narrowing the request. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit.
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