Transcript Producing small area housing and household statistics from Council Tax systems.

Producing small area housing and
household statistics from Council
Tax systems
Esther Roughsedge
General Register Office for Scotland
(GROS)
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Outline
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Purpose
Assessors’ Portal – statistics on dwellings
Council Tax – statistics on households
Advantages and disadvantages
Replacement housing/household statistics
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Background
• GROS publishes statistics on number of
dwellings, households and vacant
dwellings, for each council in Scotland.
• Mainly used by council Planners and other
service providers.
• Strong demand for more detailed local
information.
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
1. Assessors’ Portal:
statistics on dwellings
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Assessors’ Portal
• Council tax is a property-based tax, to help
pay for council services.
• The Scottish Assessors assess the Council
Tax band of each property.
• They maintain a database of every property
in Scotland (the ‘Assessors’ Portal’).
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SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Data published by GROS
• GROS uses the postcode to aggregate the
Assessors’ Portal data to neighbourhood level
(data zones):
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–
–
Total no. dwellings
No. dwellings in each Council Tax band
No. dwellings by number of rooms
No. dwellings by type of property (flat, terrace,
detached house or semi-detached house)
– Density of housing
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Quality checks
• Before publishing, we carried out a number
of quality checks, including comparing the
overall data to the Census.
• The Assessors resolved any potential
inconsistencies, such as use of the term
‘villa’.
• We identify any missing postcodes.
General Register Office
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SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
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Crown Copyright 2007
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
General Register Office
for
Crown Copyright 2007
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
General Register Office
for
Crown Copyright 2007
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Advantages and disadvantages
• Advantages
– Single administrative database – good quality,
consistent data covering the whole of Scotland.
– Easy to access.
– Provides neighbourhood information which is not
available from any other source except the Census.
– Assessors are keen for the data to be used more widely.
• Disadvantages
– Some missing information.
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
2. Council Tax – statistics on
occupied/vacant dwellings
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SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Council Tax statistics
• Assessors’ Portal doesn’t record whether
dwellings are occupied or not.
• But Council Tax systems do…
• For Council Tax purposes, councils record details
of every dwelling, and any discounts/exemptions.
• There are discounts/exemptions for 2nd homes and
empty properties.
• Allows us to compile neighbourhood statistics on
occupied and vacant dwellings.
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Our approach
• Scottish Government already collected
Council Tax information at council level,
which we use to publish council household
estimates.
• GROS set up a new, small area data
collection.
General Register Office
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SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
What we did
• Amended legislation to allow councils to
supply non-personal data obtained as part of
their council tax billing activities.
• Discussed with councils and their software
suppliers.
• Produced a data specification to describe
what information we wanted (based on the
Council Tax legislation).
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
What we did (cont.)
• There are 5 Council Tax software suppliers
in Scotland.
• We went via the ‘lead’ council for each
software supplier, and paid them to develop
a new report, based on our data spec.
• Piloted the data collection last year.
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SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Output
• Council Tax report produces figures at
postcode level.
• Some councils didn’t want to supply us with
data at postcode level.
• We provided them with an Access database
which uses the postcode to aggregate the
data to ‘data zone’ level.
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Data specification
• Total dwellings.
• Exempt (unoccupied).
• Exempt (occupied) – mainly all-student
households and barracks.
• Long-term empty properties.
• 2nd homes.
• Dwellings occupied entirely by adults who are
‘disregarded’ for Council Tax purposes.
• Single occupancy discounts.
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SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Issues
• Incomplete postcode information – we can’t
geo-reference these dwellings.
• Some councils can’t separately identify 2nd
homes and vacant properties.
• Some confusion over the interpretation of
Council Tax legislation, in terms of which
dwellings are occupied or unoccupied.
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information about Scotland's people
Issues with individual software
suppliers
• One software supplier uses a ‘Band X’.
• Some councils use different codes to classify
occupied and unoccupied exemptions.
• These issues were only identified after piloting the
data collection with a range of councils (not just
one per software supplier).
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Comparisons
• Council data collection.
• Number of dwellings recorded in Assessors’
Portal.
• Maps, e.g., location of second homes and
all-student households.
• Some comparisons with Census data.
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Dundee: dwellings recorded in Assessors' Portal vs
Council Tax system, in each data zone
1000
Council Tax
800
600
400
200
0
0
200
400
600
Assessors' Portal
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
800
1000
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for
Crown Copyright 2007
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
General Register Office
for
Crown Copyright 2007
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
General Register Office
for
Crown Copyright 2007
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
Uses of Council Tax data
• Small area household estimates – useful for
Planners and service providers.
• Will allow us to produce household
projections for different geographies.
• Lots of interest in vacant properties and
second homes.
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
3. What next?
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information about Scotland's people
Future of Council Tax
• Scottish Government has a policy of
replacing Council Tax with a Local Income
Tax.
• We are investigating possible alternative
sources of data.
General Register Office
for
SCOTLAND
information about Scotland's people
(a) Housing data approach
• Find a source of data on all dwellings
– e.g., Definitive National Address project
• Find a source of data on vacant dwellings /
2nd homes
– e.g., through tax system
•  Vacant dwellings and occupied dwellings
(≈ households)
General Register Office
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information about Scotland's people
(b) Population data approach
• Find a source of data on all people,
including address or Unique Property
Reference Number (UPRN).
• Aggregate by address or UPRN.
• Provides household estimates, plus some
info on household type (e.g., age and gender
of members).
• A possible source is NHS Central Register.
General Register Office
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information about Scotland's people
Websites
•
GROS
www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/householdestimates-projections/index.html
•
Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics
www.sns.gov.uk
Scottish Assessors’ Portal
www.saa.gov.uk
•
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Any questions?
General Register Office
for
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information about Scotland's people