Chamber and committees

I have read that, but not the actual specifics about where it is and so on. I am happy to pick that up.

I am aware of the petition on that, and I am sure that I will be asked to speak to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee at the appropriate stage.

There are a couple of things to say about the remit of the Scottish Housing Regulator. The regulator was created by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010, and it is an independent regulator for all landlords. One of its statutory objectives is to safeguard and promote the interests of current and future tenants of social landlords and other users of social landlord services.

The regulator regulates the performance of housing services, and a key aspect involves picking up issues with RAAC. When we were first made aware of that issue, which affects buildings across the UK, the regulator had a key part to play in engaging with social landlords. The approach that we took was much more extensive than the one that was taken in the rest of the UK, and that was the correct approach. We looked at housing across all sectors, as well as NHS and education buildings. The regulator played an important part in that. It comes back to the point that there was no further obligation for homes that were sold under the right-to-buy scheme, but local authorities have the role of ensuring that the housing in their area meets the relevant standards.

I am sure that the petition will continue to go through the parliamentary process and, depending on what is raised by the petitioner, we will respond accordingly. I will not pre-empt what that committee or the petitioner will say, but I am sure that I will be asked to speak to that committee at an appropriate stage. I am happy to come back to this committee at that point.

On the open call for residents, one key thing that I mentioned in my statement to the Parliament was increasing the pace and the breadth of the work. We have discussed that with local authorities, and I spoke to all the housing conveners at that point to talk about our approach.

That sits alongside the work that we are already doing. We are doing work with assessments. We are leading that, but developers are also involved. The main thing—I think that I have previously mentioned this—is to empower and enable home owners and their representatives or social landlords to take a lead role in the assessment and remediation of their buildings, with support from the Scottish Government grant fund. We have also had discussions with factors on that point.

Since the open call was launched just four weeks ago, there have been 32 expressions of interest in getting support for an SBA. That is quite positive, and the number is rising daily.

You mentioned identifying buildings following the Grenfell tower fire in June 2017. Those have been identified through a number of measures. We carried out a data collection exercise—the high-rise inventory—in 2021. There was also a high-pressure laminate cladding exercise. Those identified a number of buildings with potentially flammable cladding. Our call for participants in our pilot programme also identified a number of buildings with potentially flammable cladding. A number of other buildings have been identified as owners have come forward through the single open-call process.

We have written to local authorities, and I have engaged with local authorities’ heads of housing on that point. That was part of the statement that we made last month. We continue to engage with local authorities as we progress that work. The initial feedback that we have had about the expressions of interest has been positive since the open call was launched about four weeks ago.

I will say a couple of things on that. I have said on a number of occasions that the process of identifying cladding-related issues across Scotland has been far too slow, and I will touch on the actions that we are taking in that regard. Work to assess, mitigate and remediate is already under way through a number of avenues. We have published information via the high-rise inventory that shows that work is now under way on just under half—11 out of 23—of high-rise buildings that are owned by a local authority and have been identified as having combustible cladding. We are surveying local authorities to validate the data and confirm the status of buildings where remediation has not previously been reported. That is key.

We have also confirmed that all 107 entries in the Scottish Government pilot programme are progressing on an appropriate pathway of assessment, which will lead to mitigation or remediation works. We received the fire engineer outturn report immediately before Easter weekend, and officials are currently rapidly considering it.

Scottish Government-led assessment is progressing on 13 works. Urgent interim measures, such as waking watches, are taking place for six entries, and one entry has had external wall cladding removed. When we have been made aware of the need to take immediate action, we have done so. For instance, we have invested more than £6.7 million in mitigation works for one entry that was cited.

As I have said, I have no doubt that the length of time that it took to identify such issues was disappointing, hence why we are taking action to move things forward. We have been very sensitive to the concerns of affected home owners and residents, and I have met people from across Scotland on a number of occasions.

The statutory framework that we lacked previously, which includes a robust SBA process, has been in place since January. We must now greatly increase the pace. I have previously spoken in a statement to the Parliament about the open call and the breadth of our work on cladding. I am sure that that will come up later.

That is what we have resolved to do. I have said previously in the Parliament and to the committee that the pace was far too slow, but we are now taking action. We have passed the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill and put in place the SBA process. We also have the developer remediation programme. That is all in place. We have an indicative budget of £52 million for this year, which is a big increase in spending. We have in place everything that is needed to increase the pace in tackling the issue.

More generally, I know that the issue has been raised in the committee and in the Parliament before. On the back of the statement on the Grenfell tower inquiry, there is much broader awareness of that. We contract with companies as part of the Government-led process. We have 13 SBAs in process just now.

I have asked the question, as have many others, and we have not been made aware of any issues in companies’ capacity to participate, but we will continue to monitor that as part of the cladding remediation process. As part of the broader process, SBAs are going ahead. It is a UK-wide issue, so UK companies are dealing with that as well.

I ask Stephen Garvin to talk about the broader issue around SBAs and fire engineers. I might ask Alan Johnston to comment on the more specific cladding issues. I note that those two aspects cannot be separated.

There are a number of points in that. I come back to the point that the Acting Minister for Climate Action made. I recently visited Granton, where there is a mixed tenure development and the heating system is built in to the development itself. The Government is committed to doing that in future.

Retrofitting is an important part of what local authorities—and the Government—look at in relation to their outlook for investment. It is important to invest in retrofitting, repairs and new housing. There is no doubt in my mind that we need to follow the retrofitting agenda. I know that there has been debate about that in other Parliaments, but there is no doubt that we need to do it as soon as we can to make sure that we are tackling climate change.

The Acting Minister for Climate Action updated the Parliament on the Government’s intention to introduce a heat in buildings bill to make provision for all homes and buildings to move to clean heating systems by the end of 2045. It is right to do that. Even though that is about 20 years away, it gives incentives to investors.

As I previously told the committee, the estimated cost is about £30 billion and it would provide about 20,000 jobs. The cost of construction has probably pushed that estimate much higher than it was a year or so ago. We always need investment to come in to the sector.

From speaking to local authorities and other social landlords, I know that that is an important part of their considerations about whether they invest in repairs, new properties or retrofitting. The mixed tenure approach is also important in terms of discussions about how they can invest. I had the pleasure of visiting Wester Hailes to talk about the success of the area-based schemes. When I visited Wester Hailes, I saw the improvement that that had made in a number of properties with mixed tenure. Half a billion pounds has been spent on that project.

We are looking at different proposals for working with the City of Edinburgh Council on heat networks. Local authorities had to send in their local heat and energy efficiency strategies—LHEES—and now we are looking at implementation plans. There are several different approaches, but they have to take in a mixed tenure approach.

We must remain committed to changing the heating systems by the end of 2045. Different local authorities have different approaches. That is why it was important that the LHEES were picked up on, because they allow a little bit of local flexibility. It is important that we make sure—particularly considering the size and scale of Edinburgh and the mixed tenures in it—that there are different approaches that we can take. We are working closely with the council, as is the Acting Minister for Climate Action and other colleagues.

There are a number of places, and Home Energy Scotland is one of them. Local authorities also have a role in that regard. We can have an LHEES implementation plan and a strategy, but a key point is how we get that message out. We are talking about developing technologies in the next 15 or 20 years. How do we ensure that home owners, social landlords, private landlords and private tenants are aware of them? Local authorities play an important part in that. People should be aware of energy advice, whether from local authorities or from the Government. It has to tie into the LHEES strategy and what that looks like. We talked about the approach that is taken in Edinburgh; other parts of Scotland take different approaches. It is about making people aware of that.

The specific approach in Wester Hailes focused on discussing with home owners, social landlords, Edinburgh council, or people who had bought their houses. The important part was speaking specifically to tenants—that was helpful—and making them aware of their options, whether the property was privately owned or owned by the council.

Yes, and you and I had a brief discussion about that. It was discussed at the event and various proposals are being developed in the sector and I am sure that the Government will pick up on that. I am happy to take that point away and raise it with colleagues.

I had an interest in solar thermal when I met Solar Energy Scotland prior to becoming minister. The technology has changed and the payback time has reduced. There are different forms of solar energy and different ways in which it can help to tackle climate change. The sector will continue to develop. One of the key things for me going forward is to make sure that we are flexible enough to engage with different technologies as they move on in the next five, 10, 15 and 20 years, whether that be for retrofitting or for new properties being built. We have seen how much technology has changed in the past five years.

Again, that is why what the LHEES looks like is really important. You are right that there will be a mix of tenures, as there was in Wester Hailes, for example, for the area-based schemes. The approaches will obviously be slightly different. In Wester Hailes, for example, if there was a private tenant, there were different ways to provide the funding, so there are different ways to look at the issue. The overall funding package is an important part. In Wester Hailes, the area-based schemes allowed people to plan things out.

Having spoken to the City of Edinburgh Council teams at the time, I think that the consultation at the outset and the discussions that took place were key. I had a chance to speak to private tenants and social or local authority tenants about how that was done. That approach worked, and it was very much done in consultation with tenants, whether they were private tenants or council tenants. We need to consider that approach, which worked, as we go forward. The process will need to work in different parts of Edinburgh and in different parts of Scotland. The area-based schemes and the work in Wester Hailes show that that approach works.

I do not know the full extent of that. Cladding and RAAC are slightly different issues, but I am happy to come back to you on the point about legislation.

I should say, though, that this does come down to funding; we will continue to press the UK Government on that, but so far we have not received any positive reply. We will also continue to engage with home owners and see how best we can support them.