UK facts for Microcosm's next data PR: Scotland's second homes and empty dwellings, and NEET's November edition #435

Summary

Microcosm's next UK data PR is PR3 of the November event-data plan (PolicyEngine/microcosm#1095). Each of its pieces was checked against Chronicle's main. Almost everything it reads is already here, from #420's batches (#423, #424 and #425).

This issue asks for the two things that aren't:

1. Scotland's second homes and empty dwellings by council area at September 2024, so Microcosm can take them out of its Scottish council tax level.
2. The November 2026 edition of ONS's NEET release, for Microcosm's NEET diagnostic.

#420 still holds three items PR3's later parts need (items 10, 12 and 13). They stay there and aren't repeated here.

Consumer: Microcosm UK (PolicyEngine/microcosm).

Already in Chronicle, so not requested

• hmrc-employer-nics-age-reliefs-january-2026, ons-paye-rti-age-nsa-october-2026 and the ons-ashe-table6-* packages (UK young people and work facts for chronicle#420: ONS NEET, LFS A06, people on UC by age and regime, PAYE RTI and ASHE Table 6 by age, and HMRC's NICs reliefs #423): the employer NICs base for employees under 21.
• dwp-uc-people-country-age-conditionality-regime-april-2024-may-2026 (UK young people and work facts for chronicle#420: ONS NEET, LFS A06, people on UC by age and regime, PAYE RTI and ASHE Table 6 by age, and HMRC's NICs reliefs #423): people on Universal Credit by age and conditionality regime.
• dwp-pathways-to-work-pip-points-january-2025 (UK PIP review facts for chronicle#420: the Pathways to Work evidence pack's PIP points and DWP's Stat-Xplore PIP cases #424), including Tables 2.19 to 2.21 for a single-activity draw. Table 2.9's 16 to 19 row adds to 92 in DWP's own table and is ported as published, so no change is requested.
• The dwp-pip-cases-* packages (UK PIP review facts for chronicle#420: the Pathways to Work evidence pack's PIP points and DWP's Stat-Xplore PIP cases #424): PIP cases by age, award and country.
• scotgov-adp-caseload-july-2026 and scotgov-carer-support-payment-caseload-june-2026 (UK Scottish Budget facts for chronicle#420: Social Security Scotland's caseloads and HMRC's Scottish income tax outturn 2024-25 #425): Adult Disability Payment and Carer Support Payment caseloads.
• hmrc-scottish-income-tax-outturn-2024-25 (UK Scottish Budget facts for chronicle#420: Social Security Scotland's caseloads and HMRC's Scottish income tax outturn 2024-25 #425): Scottish non-savings, non-dividend income tax.
• hmrc-property-rental-income-2026: PRIS, with the Scotland rows.
• scotgov-band-d-equivalents-2025, scotgov-band-d-council-tax-rates-2026-27 and scotgov-council-tax-bands-2025: Scotland's Band D equivalents, average Band D and chargeable dwellings. None of them splits the base into second homes or empty dwellings, hence item 1.
• Minimum wage rates by age: policyengine-uk's gov.hmrc.minimum_wage parameters hold them.

1. Scottish Government: second homes and empty dwellings by council area, September 2024

• Sources:
  • the Scottish Government's "Second homes and empty properties" statistics, from the councils' Council Tax Base returns: the edition for September 2024, and the September 2025 edition (https://www.gov.scot/publications/second-homes-and-empty-properties-in-september-2025/), whose tables carry the year-on-year changes;
  • or the Council Tax Base return tables on the council tax datasets page, if they break the base down by class.
• Requested: for each of Scotland's 32 council areas and for Scotland, at September 2024, and at September 2025 where the same tables carry it:
  • second homes;
  • long-term empty dwellings, as the publisher defines them;
  • other unoccupied dwellings that are liable for council tax, with exempt dwellings as their own line where published;
  • each of these split by whether a premium or a discount applies, and at what rate, where published;
  • by council tax band, where published;
  • the chargeable dwellings the shares are taken of.
• Semantics to carry:
  • the publisher's class definitions and the premium and discount rules as it states them;
  • September snapshots from the Council Tax Base returns;
  • gov.scot's caveat that the empty-home counts may be overstated, as published;
  • provenance class admin_aggregate.
• Parity checks:
  • the council areas add to Scotland;
  • the classes add to the published totals;
  • the September 2024 counts agree with the September 2025 edition's year-on-year changes.
• Use: Microcosm levels Scotland's FRS council tax bills to CTAXBASE 2025's Band D equivalents at September 2024 times CTAS 2026's average Band D (UK November event data, PR2: feed re-pin, trading allowance claim status, Scottish council tax and NSND, young people and PIP rows, UC take-up age fit, PIP points, UC limited capability microcosm#1550).
  • That liability includes second homes and liable empty homes, which no survey household lives in.
  • Microcosm's bound OBR council tax receipts already net such dwellings out, using England's share from MHCLG's Council Taxbase. This was raised in the review of UK November event data, PR2: feed re-pin, trading allowance claim status, Scottish council tax and NSND, young people and PIP rows, UC take-up age fit, PIP points, UC limited capability microcosm#1550 (UK November event data, PR2: feed re-pin, trading allowance claim status, Scottish council tax and NSND, young people and PIP rows, UC take-up age fit, PIP points, UC limited capability microcosm#1550 (comment)).
  • PR3 scales the level by Scotland's own main-residence share. If these counts can't be packaged before PR3's build, Microcosm uses England's share as an interim.

2. ONS: NEET, November 2026 edition

• Source: NEET Table 1, the dataset ons-neet-august-2026 reads: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/datasets/youngpeoplenotineducationemploymentortrainingneettable1.
• When: the next edition, due in late November 2026.
• Requested: a new edition in the same shape as ons-neet-august-2026, adding July to September 2026. Keep the August package, since later editions revise earlier quarters.
• Semantics to carry: as in ons-neet-august-2026, plus any revision or reweighting notes in the new edition.
• Parity checks: as in UK young people and work facts for chronicle#420: ONS NEET, LFS A06, people on UC by age and regime, PAYE RTI and ASHE Table 6 by age, and HMRC's NICs reliefs #423: 16–17 plus 18–24 is 16–24, unemployed plus inactive is NEET, and the share is NEET over the population.
• Use: Microcosm's held-out NEET diagnostic (UK November event data, PR2: feed re-pin, trading allowance claim status, Scottish council tax and NSND, young people and PIP rows, UC take-up age fit, PIP points, UC limited capability microcosm#1550), at PR3's feed re-pin.

Still open in #420 and needed by PR3's later parts

• Item 10, Ofgem's January to March 2027 cap: the event day, and tariff parameters if policyengine-uk adds them (January 2027 price cap: kWh, a mains gas flag and tariff parameters, the cap's consumption basis, and Northern Ireland policyengine-uk#2890).
• Item 12, DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices customers by payment method: a payment-method draw in Microcosm.
• Item 13, Registers of Scotland sales above £1 million and £2 million, and the consultation's Band I and J estimates: extending Microcosm's home-value step to Scotland.

Out of scope

Microcosm's own work: the main-residence share, the stage receipt, the restated notes, the diagnostic rows and the builds.

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