Information on council stock is collected at an aggregate level. Sensitive or confidential information relating to individual houses or people is not collected.

Data collected for Stock by normal use is sourced directly from the 32 Local Authorities in Scotland. There is no sampling involved in this data collection and complete coverage of Scotland is usually achieved across most data items. In the event of non-response from a Local Authority, an estimate can be made either based on previous returns or on alternative information sources. A small number of observations are not available.

Information provided by Local Authorities is extracted from Management Information Systems. We expect this information to be of good quality as it is used in the day to day housing management as well as for reporting purposes. We also expect the systems to have some built quality assurance.

Information on the overall numbers of houses owned by Local Authorities is considered to be of good quality, as this information is crucial to the management of housing stock by Local Authorities.

The classification of the housing stock into normal type of use is believed to be generally good quality although there is some evidence that the way in which certain houses are classified from one year to the next can change.

Scottish Government statisticians carry out quality assurance of data provided from each Local Authority prior to publication. In particular figures are compared to those provided in previous years. Where there appears to be a discrepancy this is queried with the local authority and, if necessary, changes are made either to the latest year’s data or to that for earlier years in order to ensure consistency.

Figures are sourced from management information systems therefore there no sampling error or confidence interval that would affect the accuracy of the results, although there may be a small amount of error associated with non-response and subsequent estimation.

Data on stock by normal use has been collected in a consistent manner since 1999. This time series is affected by 6 local authorities that transferred all of their stock to housing associations between 2003 and 2007. This means that figures for Glasgow and Scottish Borders are excluded from 2003 onwards, Dumfries & Galloway from 2004, Eilean Siar and Argyll & Bute from 2007 and Inverclyde from 2008.

The Scottish Housing Regulator collect stock figures for all social landlords, including the 26 local authorities that own housing stock. Although the timing and data sources used by SHR and SG Housing statistics are similar, there may be some differences in definitions which may cause figures to be slightly different in some cases. The Stock by Tenure section of the Housing Statistics for Scotland 2017: Key Trends Summary presents estimates of total stock by tenure at a Scotland and local authority level as at March 2016. It combines information on the number of social rented stock units sourced from local authorities and the Scottish Housing Regulator, the number of vacant properties sourced from National Records of Scotland publications, and the proportions of owner-occupier and private rented sector households as estimated from the Scottish Household Survey.

The Scottish Household Survey website also presents information on total housing stock by tenure, based entirely on survey responses and not on social landlord stock data. Chapter 3 on Housing contains tables on tenure of household: by year, by household type, by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, by Urban Rural Classification and by length of time at current address.

The Stock return collects basic information on all local authority stock of dwellings as at 31 March each year, whether or not it is currently available for letting. However it excludes dwellings that are currently out of use and expected to be out of use for at least a year. A dwelling is a building or part of a building which forms a separate and self-contained set of premises designed to be occupied by one household. Includes any building or part of a building designed or adapted for multiple occupation by a group of small households with some shared facilities. Does not include institutional hostels with communal catering. A permanent dwelling is a dwelling where the walls are of brick, stone, concrete block or similar material and which had a design life of 60 years or more at the time of construction. Include dwellings of non-traditional construction with a 60 year design life. Chalets, Terrapins and similar dwellings are considered non-permanent and should not be included. The “Other” category includes

• Tied housing

• Dwellings which are currently out of use and expected to be permanently out of use because of planned demolition

• Dwellings which are currently out of use and expected to be out of use for at least a year

• Dwellings which are classed as low demand

• Dwellings used solely for decant.

The Stock figures represent the amount of stock owned by local authorities, however some local authority stock will not be occupied or available to let for those seeking a house. For example, housing that is earmarked for demolition, part of a modernisation project, or in a low demand area will in many cases not be occupied or available for letting.

Tables are published on the Scottish Government Housing Statistics website as soon as possible once data collection, data processing and preparation of tables and publication material is complete, generally in September each year. The open data platform will be updated as soon as possible after publication.

Stock by normal use figures are subject to routine revisions. The figures may contain estimates where an authority is unable to return data. These are revised in the next scheduled publication following receipt of revised data.