Scottish Government updates cladding remediation programme

On 12 May 2022, the Scottish Government announced an expansion to their Single Building Assessment programme, which will provide a further 80 high-rise buildings with help in addressing safety issues caused by cladding. This builds on a pilot programme announced last year, in which the cladding of 26 buildings was examined. 

Under the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord, developers will be expected to fund works to properties they have built to address safety issues identified through the assessment programme with public funding being prioritised for buildings that are not linked to an existing developer. The Accord is being developed with Homes for Scotland, a membership body for housing developers, alongside homeowners and other key partner organisations. These groups will work collaboratively to identify solutions for domestic buildings affected by cladding issues. The Scottish Government hopes that a new streamlined process for commissioning the assessments will help identify at-risk buildings more quickly. 

A Single Building Assessment is a comprehensive inspection of whole blocks of domestic residential buildings, looking at fire safety and suitability for mortgage lending. There is no cost to property owners for these assessments, which identify what needs to be mitigated or remediated on a building-by-building basis, and in line with the most current building standards. 

Legislation banning combustible cladding on high-rise buildings, and the highest risk metal composite cladding material from all buildings, was laid last month. This is the third set of changes made to fire safety standards for cladding in Scotland since the Grenfell Tower Fire. 

Source: Scottish Government, 12 May 2022