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Scottish government working on deal to get builders to pay for cladding fixes
Scotland’s largest house builders look set to agree a deal that would see them contribute towards remediation work in blocks found to have cladding issues, the country’s housing secretary has said.
Speaking in parliament on Thursday, Shona Robison, secretary for social justice, housing and local government, said the government is working on the details of a Scottish Safer Buildings Accord that would put commitments on the building sector regarding fire safety issues.
The commitments are likely to mirror those that have been agreed in England, which has seen the country’s biggest builders commit to paying for remediation work on blocks they constructed.
During her speech, Ms Robison said she could not see a reason why a developer in Scotland would not commit to do exactly the same as what their counterparts in England have done and that it is her expectation that these builders would pick up the bill.
She added that this commitment would ensure public funds could be spent on fixing blocks where no developer could be identified and no parent company exists.
Discussions have now begun between the government, builders and Scottish housebuilding trade body Homes for Scotland over the accord, with Ms Robison stating that many of the major developers “want to do what is right” and that discussions have been “co-operative and collaborative”.
However, she said that if required she would make full use of powers available to bring parties to the table and if necessary would use legislation to force developers to cough up funds.
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In March last year, the Scottish government vowed to provide all homeowners living in flats with external cladding a free assessment to determine which properties needed remediation work.
The Single Building Assessment programme was aimed at checking all blocks across the country to identify those with unsafe cladding.This process involved giving grants to buildings to then procure the assessment and identify what mitigating work needed to take place.
A total of 26 buildings have so far received these checks.
Ms Robison said that while the programme was successful in identifying problems, the process was long, onerous and expensive, and needed to be changed.
Under the new system, the Scottish government will procure surveyors and fire engineers centrally, with the hope that this will allow many more buildings to be inspected at the same time and remove several months of delays.
The government will include 80 buildings that were registered for interest in securing an assessment last year on to the programme through a new simplified application process.
In her speech on Thursday, Ms Robison criticised the UK government’s “lack of joined-up thinking” regarding the building safety crisis and accused it of failing to keep the devolved nations informed on their plans.
She said: “We have had little information and sudden announcements, with those announcements increasingly focusing on fixing problems in England only.
“It remains the case that the UK Government’s approach to tackling key issues in England only, benefits from powers only available at UK level, such as corporation tax, which has been used to tax UK-wide residential property developers.”
Elsewhere, the Welsh government also criticised the UK government’s lack of joined-up thinking on Thursday, calling for it to extend its developer pledge to other devolved nations.
Climate change minister Julie James said the current “unilateral approach” to building safety makes it harder to ensure developers take their responsibilities to contribute towards the costs of fixing building safety issues in Wales seriously.
She said: “We continue to do everything in our power to repair building safety defects – without these costs falling on leaseholders – and to reform building safety law. But there are many things our governments can do to improve building safety on a UK basis.
“I was therefore deeply disappointed when the secretary of state for housing, levelling up and communities, Michael Gove, announced an England-only developer pledge last month.
“The UK Government’s unilateral approach to building safety issues makes it harder to ensure all developers take their responsibilities to contribute towards the costs of fixing building safety problems in Wales seriously.
“It inhibits our ability to hold developers and manufacturers to account for fixing their mistakes and it runs counter to the recent review of intergovernmental relations.
“It also creates more confusion for residents at a time when they need consistency and clarity.”
The Welsh government’s Budget has set aside £375m to spend on building safety work over the next three years. Like Scotland, the government has committed to providing free surveys, the results of which will be used to inform a new Building Safety Fund.
