You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Consultation on Scotland’s building safety levy launched
The Scottish government is consulting on proposals for a building safety levy, which will apply to all new residential buildings.
The levy, a tax on developers to raise funds to help fix building safety issues in Scotland, will be introduced under powers due to be devolved by the UK government later this year.
The Scottish government secured the power to introduce a levy from Westminster in April.
The levy would apply to the construction of new residential buildings, mirroring measures being introduced in England through the UK Building Safety Act.
READ MORE
Funds raised would support the Scottish government’s cladding remediation programme.
In England, the levy will apply to new residential buildings, with revenues – expected to be £3bn over 10 years – used to fund remediation of unsafe buildings.
A UK-wide levy was ruled out owing to differences in the housing markets and building control systems in England and Scotland.
The Scottish government proposes to bring in the levy on a national basis, as opposed to the English system, which will see revenue collected by local authorities.
Revenue Scotland would act as the tax collection body.
The consultation asks about the scope of the levy – who should pay and who should be exempt – and how it should be calculated.
The government is also seeking views on how the levy should operate, how it will be collected, how long it should run for, and what kind of powers might be needed to enforce it.
Scottish finance and local government secretary Shona Robison said: “We are keen to hear from people across Scotland about our proposals, which would raise funds from developers to help safeguard people living in buildings with unsafe cladding.
“I know that developers share our determination to keep people safe and have continued to make significant progress.
“This legislation will build on that momentum, ensuring developers make a fair contribution to address building safety defects in Scotland, just as the UK government is asking them to do in England.
“We are continuing our work in partnership with developers, in line with our new deal for business and framework for tax, to ensure this levy best contributes to our mission of keeping people safe.”
The consultation opened on Monday and will run for eight weeks to 18 November.
It comes after it emerged that flammable cladding has been replaced on just one high-rise housing block out of 5,500 in Scotland, more than seven years after the Grenfell Tower fire.
Just one building had its cladding replaced under a £97.1m UK government grant awarded four years ago, of which four-fifths remain unspent.
