Scottish Government to ban combustible cladding

The Building Standards minister said that made the issue of funding any repairs “very, very difficult.”

Acting on the recommendations of an independent working group set up after the Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people in 2017, the Scottish Government announced a system of assessments to look at entire buildings and see if remedial work is needed. 

The Scottish Government says about 700 high-rise buildings and many smaller buildings have cladding that will need to be checked. A pilot looking into 25 buildings, launched last August, is due to report back in the coming weeks. 

Scottish ministers have been repeatedly criticised by homeowners and tenants in tall buildings, with many still unclear if they have dangerous cladding, and unable to move.

While in England, some homeowners have received compensation, and work to remove dangerous cladding has already started.

The Scottish Government has received more than £97m in Barnett Consequentials because of Whitehall spending on the combustible cladding crisis.

In an interview with the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland, Mr Harvie suggested that money had now all been allocated to assessments.

He said: “The situation is likely to be different for different buildings. There's not going to be a simple rule and that's why we think this system of individual building assessments needs to go forward. We've already committed funding to do that.”

“He added: This is a highly technical area, there's not going to be a simple single rule that says, all buildings of a certain category need to have a certain change made to them, so they need to be looked at individually, and we're pretty confident that the large majority of buildings will be found to be safe. through that. But the assessments need to be carried out in order to figure out what changes may need to 

“We're expecting the first ones to complete in the coming weeks and months.”

Asked about how remedial work would be funded, Mr Harvie said: “Well, the issue of how to fund replacements where that is found through the assessments to be necessary is a very, very difficult one. And it's one where I'm afraid we have a really serious problem of cooperation between the governments - not just from the Scottish Government, but from the Welsh Government point of view as well.” 

Earlier this month, Michael Gove, the UK Government's housing minister announced a new deal with developers to make them help fix unsafe cladding on their buildings. 

Companies failing to pledge to fix tall buildings they have worked on in the past 30 years will face consequences, including possibly being banned from new construction. 

An extension to the building safety levy, chargeable to all new residential buildings in England, will collect £3bn and developers will pay at least £2bn.

However, that means no consequentials through the Barnett Formula. 

Mr Harvie said: “The UK Government has shifted from a position of having a fund, which would, of course, mean consequential money coming to the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, to a system of pledge letters and that means that there simply won't be that consequential funding. 

“So we really need to work through this with the UK Government in a collaborative way. And it's deeply frustrating.”

Asked about the money already receiving in consequentials, Mr Harvie said: “We have already committed that £97m on the programme of work that I've already set out around single building assessments.”

He added: “That's the work that needs to be carried out to understand on a bespoke basis what needs to change with each of these buildings. As I say, we're confident that the majority of these buildings will be found to be safe, but you need to undertake that work in order to understand that and that's what we've funded to make sure that that's that work is done on a basis that's free to homeowners.”

Asked if they would pursue developers in the same way that the UK Government has, the minister said he believed “very strongly that the developers and the construction industry need to make the same offer in Scotland as it's made elsewhere, stepping up and taking their responsibility.”

“But the absence of this collaborative cooperative approach across the UK nations is deeply frustrating,” he added.

“It would have been far better if the UK Government had been willing to work with us and create a single approach that applies to Scotland and instead, they've simply not given us a seat at the table. And then they've announced an England only solution. 

“We need to look at the powers that we do have. And there will be powers that sit at the UK level as well, and figure out how we can take a similar approach to make sure that the developers step up in the same way in Scotland.”

Responding, a UK Government spokesperson said: “The UK Government has rightly secured an industry wide agreement that will make sure developers pay to fix the problems they created.

“Building safety is devolved and we continue to work closely and collaboratively with the Devolved Administrations, including the Scottish Government, on the concerns raised.”

Since 2005, new cladding systems on high rise blocks of flats have either had to use non-combustible materials or pass a large-scale fire test. The new legislation will remove the option of a fire test. 

The highest risk metal composite cladding material will also be banned from any new building of any height.