Fall in home improvement planning applications

The ‘Home Improvers of Great Britain 2018’ report, compiled by construction industry analysts Barbour ABI, shows that for every 100 private homes, Scotland had on average 1.1 home improvement applications in 2017, below the British average of 2.1.

A total of 22,000 applications were submitted in Scotland for home improvement in 2017. In this year’s report, Argyll and Bute led all districts across the region with 2 applications per 100 private homes, taking the top spot from last year’s leader East Lothian.

Out of the top ten districts it was Stirling that saw the largest growth in applications with a 12% increase, and jumping straight to third place as a new entry.

Across much of Great Britain home improvement activity tends to be more prevalent in less urban areas with Scotland no exception, as Glasgow and Renfrewshire sit at the bottom of the Scottish home improvement table.

Looking at the type of improvements made in applications, the bright area for Scotland seems to be rear single-storey extensions. Over the past five years there has been a 28% rise in this type of application, with the bulk of the rise being in more recent times.

The Office for National Statistics Family Spending survey suggests that households in Scotland on average spent above £850 a year altering and improving their homes across 2016 and 2017. This totals about £2 billion spent across the nation.

Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said: “The low level of home improvement will reflect the lower level of house prices in the nation, which is regionally the lowest outside of North East England. It is also possible that the tendency in Scotland, much of which is sparsely populated, is for fewer but larger than average projects.”