Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill
The Bill is being introduced to reduce the risk to life from unsafe cladding on people’s homes.
The Bill gives powers to Scottish Ministers to assess and remediate certain types of buildings with unsafe cladding. Scottish Ministers will need to record these assessments and any remediation works completed in a register. Remediate means to take action towards fixing problems.
The Bill also allows Scottish Ministers to create a responsible developers scheme.
The Bill is at Stage 3
Contents
Overview
Some types of wall cladding on the outside of buildings can cause fire safety risks.
This Bill gives Scottish Ministers powers to carry out assessments to find out if the cladding on buildings is safe. If not, Ministers can then organise repairs. If necessary, Ministers can also require people to move out of the buildings until the work needed is done.
The Bill applies to only some buildings. For a building to be assessed under the Bill, the building must have been built or refurbished between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022. The building must contain at least one residential unit and be 11 metres or over tall.
Scottish Ministers will need to record cladding assessments and remediation works in a register. This register will include assessment dates, details of any repairs, and when the work finished. This will make information about buildings with cladding repairs more easily available.
The Bill also allows Scottish Ministers to create a responsible developers scheme. This scheme would be created by secondary legislation. It would set conditions for developers to be members of the scheme to encourage remediation works to be undertaken.
Read more about what this Bill does in the Explanatory Notes (193KB, pdf) posted 01 November 2023
Why the Bill was created
In 2017 there was a fire in Grenfell Tower in London. This highlighted that cladding on some buildings was unsafe. The Scottish Government introduced this Bill to help find and fix unsafe cladding on people’s homes in Scotland.
In 2020, Scottish Ministers established a ministerial working group on cladding. It found that cladding was causing problems for people when trying to buy or sell their homes. The procedure for fixing cladding was also found to be complex.
In 2022, the Scottish Government announced a change in approach. Scottish Ministers would put in place a Cladding Remediation Programme. Similar programmes already exist in the rest of the UK. This Bill helps Scottish Ministers deliver the Programme.
Read more about why this Bill has been created in the Policy Memorandum (307KB, pdf) posted 01 November 2023