Scottish cladding bill paves way for faster remediation

The Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill has been unanimously approved in Scottish Parliament, giving Scottish Ministers powers to “assess and remediate buildings which have unsafe cladding, where consent of the owners cannot be provided”.

Passed on 14 May 2024, the Bill has been described as a “landmark moment”, with Housing Minister Paul McLennan explaining:

“The unanimous passing of this legislation will allow us to accelerate our work by addressing barriers to assessment and remediation and give homeowners and residents confidence in work carried out.

“The public commitments already made by many of Scotland’s developers to identify, assess, and remediate their buildings mean public money can be focused on buildings without a linked developer.”

With the aim of making buildings safer while also safeguarding homeowners and residents, the Scottish government confirms that the Bill will enable the creation of a Cladding Assurance Register to give homeowners and residents confidence in the assessment and remediation works being undertaken on their buildings. As outlined in the Bill, ministers will be required to “record these assessments and any remediation works completed in a register”. The register will include data such as “assessment dates, details of any repairs, and when the work finished”.

“This will make information about buildings with cladding repairs more easily available,” the government adds.

Alongside this, the Bill will give ministers powers to establish a Responsible Developers Scheme in a bid to support engagement with developers. While details of this are yet to be ironed out fully, as reported by Project Scotland, the scheme is likely to see participating developers make “financial contributions towards the costs of Single-Building Assessments and remedial works”. Non-members, on the other hand, “may be prohibited from carrying out development work”.

As reported by Construction News, 105 buildings have been identified by the Scottish government that need remediation, with work starting on two of these buildings as of February 2024. According to BBC News, the passing of the Bill will ensure “faster delivery” of the remediation programme, as explained by Housing Minister McLennan during a debate.

More details about the Bill can be found here.