Cladding assessments should be finished by end of autumn, says minister

The Scottish Government’s housing minister has said he hopes the assessment of buildings with potentially combustible cladding will be finished by the end of the autumn.

Paul McLennan said assessments are due to begin shortly and work to remediate any unsafe cladding will start afterwards.

Earlier this week, the final report into the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London was published.

The near-1,700 page report made 58 separate recommendations, the implications of which are being considered by Scottish ministers, and concluded the deaths of all 72 people in the 2017 blaze were avoidable and had been preceded by “decades of failure” by government, other authorities and the building industry.

Speaking to the BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr McLennan said: “We have a ministerial group set up next week and I spoke to cladding colleagues about quickening the pace.

“We hope to get through the single building assessment process by the end of autumn.

“That then allows the building work to continue as quick as we possibly can.”

He said the Government is speaking to individual developers about when work can begin.

The Scottish Parliament passed the Cladding Remediation Bill earlier this year and the Government has an ongoing remediation programme.

Buildings within this programme with potentially unsafe cladding will be subject to a single building assessment to judge what work is needed.

Mr McLennan was also asked about Aberdeen City council becoming the latest local authority to declare a housing emergency.

He said the Government is investing £600 million in housing this year, but he will be pushing UK ministers for more investment in the sector.

He also said he recognises that having 10,000 children in temporary accommodation is “far too much”.

He added: “We’ve built 40% more social houses per head of population than England, 70% more than Wales.

“But we need to be doing more, I acknowledge that every time I’m asked that question.”

As well as building new homes, he said the Government is looking into acquiring void properties.