Meeting of the Parliament 14 May 2024
I pay tribute to all my colleagues—committee members and other colleagues—who helped to steer and shape the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill through its evidence stages to get to where we are now. I hope that it is a bill that will make our buildings safer from the risk and rapid spread of fire.
I acknowledge the role that Kaukab Stewart played as a back bencher, with her tireless pursuit of cladding issues on behalf of her constituents in Glasgow Kelvin. Her contribution is greatly appreciated.
Grenfell is our marker for the emergence of the bill. The tragedy there in 2017, which killed 72 people, was the awful event that has led us to review and update our legislation. In 1999, 25 years ago in June, we had a tower block fire at Garnock Court in Irvine that killed one person. The important decision taken then was that all cladding used in high-rise dwellings in Scotland had to be non-combustible. It must have been one of the earliest important decisions that was taken in the Scottish Parliament when it reconvened 25 years ago. It led to the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and meant that no local authority or housing association high rises in Scotland had the same cladding material as Grenfell.
The Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill will allow us to assess and act to remediate unsafe cladding. It has three key purposes, which have been considered in great depth by the committee, and that consideration has been shared with other members. First, the single building assessment will align with industry standard PAS 9980 to ensure consistency across Scotland. Ministers will be able to instruct works that are identified as necessary by those building assessments, giving much sought-after assurance to any affected residents.
Secondly, it will create the cladding assurance register, which will contain a list of the buildings that have been through the single building assessment process, and it will show all required remediation that has been completed. Early entry on the register has been agreed to by the minister at the request of the industry. That important concern was shared by many people who were concerned about mortgage lending and insurance issues.
Thirdly, it will introduce the responsible developers scheme, the purpose of which is to encourage developers to contribute to the remediation of buildings with which they are associated. Developers who do not join the scheme might face certain consequences relating to their ability to carry out future developments.
I am pleased that many of the amendments that colleagues pursued throughout the progress of the bill were accepted by the minister. Miles Briggs’s amendments on better engagement and communication with owners, the outcomes of the SBA process and a number of other issues relating to the responsible developers scheme were agreed, as were my colleague Graham Simpson’s amendments on the important matter of progress reports on the SBAs and the remediation programme and the contents and timescales of those reports. Pam Duncan-Glancy’s amendments 22 and 24 on the important issue of emergency evacuation planning were also accepted. The amendments were considered in an extremely constructive way, and colleagues worked hard to have those amendments included. They have strengthened the bill as a result, in my opinion.
A closing point is that a lot of the evidence that we heard focused on wider fire safety issues, most of which have been around for a while but are not really within the scope of the bill. However, I understand that they will be taken forward by the Government as part of a wider consideration of fire issues in Scotland.
Passing the bill in 2024 will further strengthen Scotland’s approach to fire safety in our high-rise buildings that may have dangerous cladding. Protecting the lives of residents and providing assurance to people whose livelihoods are invested in those buildings will be enhanced if we pass the bill at decision time.
I again thank colleagues for their contributions to this important matter, and I look forward to the bill passing.
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