45% of Scottish homes were in the highest energy efficiency bands in 2019, new statistics reveal

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The Chief Statistician has released new figures on fuel poverty, energy efficiency and the condition of housing in Scotland in 2019.

45% of Scottish homes were in the highest energy efficiency bands, C or better, and half had an energy efficiency rating of 67 or higher in 2019.

The share of those rated C or better, increased from 24% in 2010 to 51% in 2019.

In the same period, the proportion of properties in the lowest EPC bands (E, F or G) more than halved, reducing from 27% to 12%.

The level of fuel poverty remained similar to the previous year in 2019: 24.6% or 613,000 households were fuel poor, with 12.4% or 311,000 households living in extreme fuel poverty.

This compares to the 25.0% or 619,000 fuel poor households in 2018, with 11.3% or 279,000 households in extreme fuel poverty.

There has been little change in the fuel poverty rate over the past four years, but there has been a reduction from the peak of 31.7%, or 761,000 households, in 2013.

Although similar to 2018, levels of extreme fuel poverty have also decreased from 16% (384,000 households) in 2013.

The median fuel poverty gap (adjusted for 2015 prices) for fuel poor households in 2019 (£700) is higher than in 2018 (£610) but similar to the median gap in 2012 to 2017.

Disrepair to critical elements of housing reduced from 57% in 2018 to 52% in 2019 but is similar to 2017 (50%).

Less than half of these (19% of all dwellings) had urgent disrepair to critical elements and just 1% of all dwellings had extensive disrepair (at least a fifth of the area) to critical elements.

The Scottish Housing Quality Standard failure rate in the social sector (41%) was not statistically significantly different to 2018 (35%), but down from 60% in 2010.

It may not always be possible to identify cavity wall insulation and, if it is assumed that all social dwellings have insulated cavity walls where technically appropriate, the failure rate would be 28%.

The key findings of the Scottish House Condition Survey 2019 are available on the Scottish Government website.