Tenement dwellings - provision of Building Reserve Funds: report

2. Introduction

This research was commissioned to ‘allow the Scottish Government to make a determination of the required level(s) of monetary commitment from tenants/ landlords in relation to BRF.’ The parameters are ‘a points-based model that can be used to calculate how much people should contribute’ and to ‘propose a model to calculate a BRF for a range of building types, assuming they are starting in a reasonable condition’.

Through informing future legislation, this commission impacts tenement owners directly and tenement tenants indirectly. In addition, many professional stakeholders are interested in the implications of any new model. These include mortgage lenders, surveyors, factoring agencies, housing associations, developers, letting agencies and membership bodies for the built environment. Therefore, this research approach set out to elicit a broad range of views. In particular, views were sought on how to put a policy commitment towards a BRF model into practice, aligning with the Fairer Scotland Action Plan.^[1]

Research questions from the Invitation to Tender were addressed using various research methods (see Appendix 1). The sections within this report are organised in relation to these research questions. Cross references of research questions appear in brackets next to each corresponding section.