Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment

Background

4. The Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017 highlighted concerns about the safety of medium and high-rise buildings with external wall cladding across the UK. The Scottish Government has taken a range of actions following the tragic events at Grenfell, including changes to Scottish Fire Safety Standards in 2019 and then again in 2021. Changes to the requirements on the fire safety of cladding systems were introduced in June 2022, including banning highly combustible metal composite material panels on all buildings and a ban on combustible external wall cladding systems of residential and high-risk buildings 11 metres or over.

5. Cladding refers to an external covering used on buildings. A cladding system is the whole system including external materials like cladding boards and render, the insulation, fixings, cavity barriers and fire stopping at openings and spandrel^[2] panels that form part of the external wall of the building. This generally does not include the structural wall or frame, including steel frame, concrete frame, timber frame or structural masonry. Buildings can have a range of cladding materials over the surface such as:

• combustible metal composite cladding;
• Metal composite material (MCM);
• Metal composite material with a polyethylene core (MCM-PE - also known as category 3 cladding for fire safety purposes);
• Aluminium composite material with a polyethylene core (ACM-PE). Grenfell Tower building was ACM-PE.

6. In Spring 2020 Scottish Ministers established the Ministerial Working Group on Mortgage Lending and Cladding (the “Working Group”) specifically to address the difficulties faced by owners and residents of properties in buildings with external wall cladding. Owners and residents were reporting challenges in re-mortgaging, buying, selling, and insuring properties with external wall cladding systems. The Working Group published its final report and recommendations in March 2021. Ministers accepted the recommendation from the Working Group that the Scottish Government should offer and fund a Single Building Assessment on a whole building basis rather than individual flats. The Single Building Assessment was designed to be an assessment of both the internal fire risk and the risk of fire relating to external cladding or wall systems.

7. In August 2021, the Scottish Government established the Programme to take forward the recommendations of the Working Group. This includes the Single Building Assessment Pilot Program, securing the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord and carrying out the Stock Census.

8. As work in assessing and remediating buildings has progressed, issues have been identified which are impacting on the delivery of the overall Programme. The aim of the Bill is to address these, thereby facilitating the delivery of the Cladding Remediation Programme.