This week, the First Minister set out the Scottish Government’s programme for 2023/24.

Before the summer recess, there had been murmurings of Scottish legislation to deal with building safety related issues but there had been no indication as to whether this legislation would lead to similar provisions to those introduced in England and Wales by the Building Safety Act 2022.

The published legislative programme for the next year doesn’t provide us with full details on what the legislation will cover. It does, however, provide us with some indication as to the direction of travel on building safety in Scotland.

Cladding Remediation Bill

The First Minister confirmed that the Scottish Government will introduce a Cladding Remediation Bill which will enable ministers to undertake urgent measures to remediate a building with unsafe cladding materials that present a risk to life. It would appear that the government views this legislation as supporting the delivery of the cladding remediation programme. It has also been suggested that this will help to speed up the remediation process. However, we understand that there are still ongoing discussions regarding the Single Building Assessment (“SBA”) which is delaying developers from undertaking surveys.

The Housing Minister, Paul McLennan, did confirm that the Scottish Government remains committed to working with developers to agree a contract “setting out their commitments to support remediation”. It is not clear whether this contract will follow the longform remediation contract signed by the developers in England.

Survey of medium- and high-rise buildings

The Scottish Government has also confirmed that there will be a survey of relevant medium- and high-rise buildings. There is no visibility on how this survey will be undertaken or the timescales for its production. It is presumed that this step is to give the Scottish Government an understanding of the scale of buildings with unsafe cladding materials.

There is no further clarity on what else the Cladding Remediation Bill might cover at this stage, so we’ll need to wait for the draft bill to be published.

Scottish Building Safety Levy

The First Minister has also advised that the Scottish Government will ask that the Scottish Parliament be given the powers to introduce a levy in Scotland mirroring the UK Government’s Building Safety Levy for England. The Building Safety Levy is to apply to developers of residential buildings and is designed to raise revenue for replacement of defective cladding and remediating any other historical building safety defects. While the regime in England is expected to be finalised this year following a public consultation, many of the details still remain unknown – including how the levy will be calculated and how much it will cost developers. It remains to be seen if the Scottish Government will wait on details of the levy to apply in England before seeking powers to create an identical scheme in Scotland, or if they will look to put in place a bespoke Scottish levy.

Comment

We await the draft Cladding Remediation Bill with interest. Whilst it is difficult to ascertain at this stage what the legislation will cover, based on previous statements made by the Housing Minister and the Scottish Government, it is anticipated that ministers would be seeking to address issues surrounding access for remediation works. That may form part of the bill – only time will tell.

Our Building Safety Group is comprised of specialists from practice areas across the firm, including construction and projects, real estate, health and safety, and banking. If you require assistance on building safety maters or would like to discuss the policy and legislative landscape and how it does or may affect your business, contact our Building Safety Group.

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