Hansard

I am pleased to make a statement setting out the Scottish Government’s response to the Grenfell tower inquiry phase 2 report. My statement will provide an update to Parliament on a range of key actions that the Scottish Government will now take, in response to the inquiry’s recommendations, to further strengthen the safety of Scotland’s built environment. I will also provide an update on action that we are taking to increase the pace and breadth of our work on cladding remediation.

On 14 June 2017, a fire at Grenfell tower in London resulted in the deaths of 72 people. It was a tragedy that should never have been able to happen. The exceptional work of the inquiry team is to be commended.

The report of phase 2 of the Grenfell tower inquiry was published on 4 September 2024. The findings of the report expose failings in the construction industry, the regulatory system and the organisations that should have kept people safe. Although the fire occurred outside Scotland, it has been felt deeply here. There is a shared construction industry, in which many of the same organisations, practices and products are used across the United Kingdom.

Immediately after the tragedy occurred, the Scottish Government set up the ministerial working group on building and fire safety to consider how buildings in Scotland could be made safer and how people would feel safe within their own homes. Much has been done to improve building safety since.

The inquiry’s second report made 58 recommendations, covering Government structures, building regulation, fire and rescue, civil contingencies, professional competence and product testing and regulation. Although the recommendations are mainly directed at the UK Government, 43 are in devolved areas of competence.

Last month, I met ministers from the UK Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. We agreed to continue work collaboratively on building and fire safety matters. That is fundamental, as areas such as construction products regulation and professional regulation are reserved to Westminster. Government and industry in Scotland simply must be able to trust the testing and certification of products and the information that is presented by manufacturers. Disgracefully, the Grenfell tragedy exposed the dishonesty of manufacturers who put profit above people’s safety in their homes.

Our response to the inquiry has been published today. Although we have already delivered change and improvement to and strengthening of systems, there is still much to do. We intend to deliver an on-going programme of systematic improvement.

The Scottish Government will consult on the need for new legislation to strengthen the building standards system. That includes introducing a compliance plan manager and changes to strengthen enforcement powers and sanctions. That builds on the established work of the building standards futures board. We will ask the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and His Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate in Scotland to report to us on changes that they have made to strengthen the effectiveness of their operational systems in response to the inquiry’s recommendations.

We will undertake a further campaign to highlight the action that can be taken to support vulnerable people to take appropriate action in the event of a fire. We will continue to engage with partners, including social landlords, on the longer-term options, including necessary legislative change, to consider how to bring in the regulated requirements to carry out person-centred risk assessments. We will consult on the introduction of mandatory periodic fire risk assessments in specified multi-occupancy buildings to reduce the risk of fire. We will strengthen fire risk assessor competency in Scotland and the requirements for duty holders to hire a competent assessor. We will work with local authorities and other category 1 responders to review and refresh resilience guidance, training and practice. We will, of course, continue to work with the UK Government to strengthen construction products regulation and the regulation of fire engineers and fire risk assessors. We will reset the ministerial working group on building and fire safety to oversee that work.

As well as responding properly to the recommendations of the Grenfell tower inquiry, it is incumbent on the Government to tackle the problems of unsafe cladding. That is why, today, I am publishing a renewed “Plan of Action on Cladding Remediation”, which sets out the key actions that we are taking, who we are working with and how we plan to deliver a collective national effort.

We have today launched what we are calling the single open call, which is a key element of that plan. It invites residential property owners or their representatives to notify us of their concerns about cladding in their properties. Having done so, and as long as their property meets some basic criteria of height and age, they will be able to apply for Government funding for a statutory single building assessment. Further, the Scottish Government will fund all compliant applications for an SBA for eligible buildings, up to an initial level of £10 million in the coming year.

Assessment of that kind is a necessary first step towards the ultimate remediation of a property’s cladding. The initial funding will support a substantial acceleration in addressing the risks that are posed by cladding in Scotland. Importantly, the support will be available to the owners of all residential properties that meet the basic criteria, regardless of tenure type. That means that our support for assessment will extend to properties that are owned by local authorities and registered social landlords, as well as to privately owned properties. The investment is designed to reduce risk in the broadest range of properties as quickly as possible.

I should make it clear that, where a developer has accepted responsibility for the assessment and remediation of a property, it will remain for that developer to take forward and fund that work, as is appropriate.

The single open call is already open on the Scottish Government website, where owners can find further information and complete a simple expression of interest.

Of course, assessment is just the first step in making a property safe. Responding to the findings of the single building assessments is the critical next step. I can announce today that a further stage of the single open call process will be launched before the end of June this year. The second stage will extend the scheme to include potential support for mitigation and remediation works. Where a single building assessment has found that mitigation and/or remediation works are required to address a property’s cladding issues, owners will be able to apply for Government funding for those works. Information on the works that will be eligible for funding will be published on the Scottish Government’s website.

It is expected that, at the mitigation and remediation stage, a local authority or registered social landlord would be responsible, as the owner, for taking forward and funding any required work. However, where social landlords are not in a financial position to be able to meet the costs of essential remediation works, the Scottish Government will consider the need for Government support and will provide financial assistance, subject to ability-to-pay criteria.

Once again, where a developer has accepted responsibility for the assessment and remediation of a property, it will remain for that developer to take forward and fund the work.

The owner-led model that is envisaged by the single open call process will complement the existing developer-led and Government-led processes of assessment and remediation. We believe that this broad-based approach gives us the best chance of moving more quickly to address Scotland’s cladding problems.

We continue to make progress with both developer-led and Scottish Government-led remediation. We are finalising an agreement with the larger developers on the developer remediation contract, which will enable them to take forward assessment and remediation of properties for which they have accepted responsibility. That follows intensive negotiations since the sharing of draft terms in September 2024, with significant progress made to agree key terms in principle. We are working towards final agreement as soon as possible. We continue to work in partnership with developers to support their efforts and to track, gather and assure information on their remediation progress.

We will, of course, continue to make progress on the Government-led leg of this broad-based effort. As members will be aware, following our pilot programme, the Scottish Government is currently concluding the single building assessment process for 13 properties and is about to commission assessments for a further four. We will continue to support their assessment and remediation journey.

We will continue to work with partners to gain as clear a picture as possible of buildings at risk. We will use that information to make sure that properties that are at elevated risk are being appropriately addressed, whether or not their owners have come forward though the single open call process.

We have already sought updated information from local authorities, asking them to provide an update on the situation in relation to cladding for each high-rise building in their ownership. Similarly, we have asked the Scottish Housing Regulator to provide information in connection with RSL-owned properties.

I hope that my announcements today will mark the delivery of a substantial acceleration in the pace and breadth of assessment across Scotland, as a necessary step towards the effective mitigation and, if required, remediation of affected properties across Scotland.

We have the foundations of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 and the single building assessment process. It is now time to turn those strong foundations into real action.