Scottish Government accused of ‘scandalous lack of urgency’ on cladding

The Scottish Government scheme set up in response to the Grenfell tower blaze has not yet completed cladding remediation work on any affected properties.

While the pilot cladding remediation programme has 107 listings – which can be either individual buildings or multiple properties in a development – details obtained by Scottish Labour under freedom of information have revealed that work has only started on five of these.

And the Scottish Government added that “works to remediate risks have not been completed for any of the entries”.

Of the 107 entries, assessments have so far been undertaken for 30, the government added.

In contrast, 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.

Remediation works had been completed in 797 buildings (21%) in England, the report added.

Labour said the figures from Scotland showed a “lack of urgency” from ministers at Holyrood that was “scandalous”.

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.

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.

But with work not yet completed on any buildings, 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.”

While the Scottish Government received £97m in 2020 to deal with the issue, Labour said that just £9m 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. 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.”