Scottish Government accused of "lack of urgency" on cladding

Work has only been started on five out of 107 buildings

The removal programme was set up by the Government in the wake of the Grenfell Tower distaster
Author: Molly TulettPublished 22nd Sep 2024
Last updated 22nd Sep 2024

The Scottish Labour Party are accusing Holyrood of a “scandalous lack of urgency” in removing cladding from affected buildings.

A Freedom of Information request from the party revealed that while the pilot cladding remediation programme has 107 listings, work has only been started on five of these.

The buildings can either be individual or multiple properties in a development.

Of the five where work has started, the Scottish Government said: “works to remediate risks have not been completed for any of the entries”, and assessments had so far only been undertaken for 30 properties.

5 out of 107 properties have had work started

Scottish Labour housing spokesperson Mark Griffin hit out at the government and said: "The SNP's lack of urgency removing this dangerous cladding from Scottish buildings is nothing short of scandalous."

He stated: "Years have passed since the Grenfell tragedy, but by the Scottish Government's own admission work hasn't been completed on a single Scottish building.

"The SNP government cannot play fast and loose with fire safety - it must act with the urgency needed to get this dangerous cladding out of Scottish buildings."

The Scottish Government moved to set up a cladding remediation programme in the wake of the London tower block blaze which killed 72 people in 2017, and earlier this year Holyrood approved legislation from the Scottish Government aimed at making delivering of the programme easier.

"Cannot play fast and loose with fire safety"

The Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill gives ministers power to assess and carry out remediation on buildings with unsafe cladding - with any remediation work then recorded in a special register.

A Holyrood committee report last year said that as of December 2023 in England more than two fifths of affected buildings (42%) had had work either started or completed, with 1,608 premises included in this total.

While the Scottish Government received £97 million in 2020 to deal with the issue, Labour said that just £9 million of that cash had been spent.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "With the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 and the Single Building Assessment Technical Specification now in place we are accelerating the pace of delivery.

"We continue to work with stakeholders"

“In our pilot programme, all 107 pilot entries are undergoing necessary pre-assessment checks, if in scope they will proceed to a developer or Government led Single Building Assessment (SBA).

“We have identified 12 pilot entries in scope, without a linked developer, and have confirmed that we are commissioning SBAs as a priority.

"Where a developer or building owner is identified we fully expect them to do the right thing in assessing and remediating buildings to bring them to a tolerable standard of risk.

“We continue to work with stakeholders to understand the risk profile across different categories of building and to gather information on the assessment and remediation activity taking place."

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