Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill passes with aim to raise £450m to fix unsafe cladding

The levy applies to conversions that provide homes as well as new builds, but only to projects that have more than 19 units.

MSPs from the ruling SNP and their former coalition partners, the Greens, backed the bill in a vote on Tuesday.

The Scottish government forecasts it may have to pay as much as £3.1bn over the next 15 years to assess and fix flats with external wall systems that pose life-safety fire risks.

Scotland’s latest cladding figures were also released by the government this week.

The figures show that, as of late January, more than 900 buildings are likely to need a Single Building Assessment (SBA), a government-funded survey of a building’s cladding risk to residents and any necessary remediation work.

So far 16 of these assessments have been carried out and three buildings are having remediation work, while 62 more SBAs have started, mostly in Glasgow.

The update also confirmed that the Developer Remediation Contract still has just one developer signed up, covering five extra buildings, including one which is now undergoing an SBA.

Ivan McKee, public finance minister, said: “The Scottish government has stepped in to marshal the necessary work to protect and repair Scotland’s existing housing stock and to ensure it is properly funded.

“Cladding remediation is set to cost between £1.7bn and £3.1bn over the next 15 years. To ensure Scotland’s public finances are sustainable, it is right that a contribution to these costs is made by the residential property development industry, just as they will be doing in England.

“All revenues raised will be spent on efforts to rehabilitate existing stock, which will improve safety for residents and homeowners and support the alleviation of the housing emergency.”