Third of Scotland funding bids for cladding assessments deemed ineligible

The methodology was finalised in June last year. At the time of writing, 16 SBAs had been carried out in Scotland, of which all but two were related to buildings in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

All of the completed SBAs have found that work to fix cladding is needed, but remediation has only started at blocks relating to two of the reports.

In addition, six SBAs have resulted in “urgent interim measures” such as waking watches or fire alarms being rolled out at buildings as a temporary way of reducing serious fire risks.

The statistics released last week also shed light on where applications for funding are coming from and which are proving successful.

Roughly half of the bids for the money came from factors or property managers, around a third were from councils, just over 200 were from registered social landlords (RSLs) and only four were from an owners’ or residents’ association.

Of the more than 1,000 claims, just under half, some 480 applications, had been given a grant or funding offer from the government as of the end of September, and almost all of these (96%) were sent in by a council or RSL.

All but 19 funding bids by councils were given an initial offer, but around a quarter of RSL applications were still awaiting a funding proposal by the end of September, the report showed.

At that point, in a bid to hurry up building assessments, the Scottish government decided to issue initial offers of grants to social landlords and ask building owners to carry out checks to make sure they are eligible for an SBA.

“This means that, for an unknown number of buildings... where an initial offer of grant has been made, no further action will be taken because they are found not to meet the criteria,” the government admitted in the report.

In contrast, just 19 bids by factors or property managers were offered funding during the period covered by the statistics.

All criteria checks for privately owned buildings have been carried out by the government, the report said.

Nearly half, some 520 applications, were from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, while the North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Highland regions accounted for more than 80 bids for funding each.

Areas with between 20 and 60 applications included Falkirk, West Lothian, West Dunbartonshire and Aberdeen City.

To be within the scope of the scheme, buildings must be residential flats at least 11 metres high, have an external wall cladding system and date from between 1992 and 2022. 

Buildings are ineligible for SBA funding if a developer is responsible for assessing and remediating cladding, or if the application does not meet the criteria outlined above.

In its introduction to the statistical release, the Scottish government stated that funding for SBAs is being made available “on an equitable basis” to support both social housing and private sector blocks.

As of August, the government will look at applications for funding for measures to fix unsafe cladding found to be required by an SBA.

The report revealed talks are currently underway with developers who signed the developer commitment letter, who will be invited to sign a developer remediation contract when it is finalised.

“This will then provide the contractual basis for them to take forward assessment and remediation on buildings in scope for which they have accepted responsibility,” it added.