Almost 1,500 Scottish buildings at risk of dangerous cladding

Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today (Monday 9th June) said that the SNP have acted inexplicably slowly after new figures revealed that there are almost 1,500 buildings at risk of dangerous cladding which has yet to be removed. Only two buildings have been assessed under legislation passed in 2024, and only one building has had remedial work completed.

New figures estimate that:

• Around 250 of the residential high-rise buildings in Scotland may require work to alleviate external wall system (EWS) life-safety fire risk.
• Around 1,020-1,200 of the mid-rise residential buildings in Scotland require work to alleviate external wall system (EWS) life-safety fire risk.
• In total, this means that an estimated 1,260-1,450 of the residential buildings in Scotland which are 11 meters or more in height require work to alleviate external wall system (EWS) life-safety fire risk.

Despite this, figures published by the Scottish Government on Single Building Assessments (SBAs), which assess any risk to human life as a result of cladding, indicate very little progress in remediating affected buildings. They show that based on the specification published in June 2024, only two SBAs had been completed by the end of April, while remedial work had only started on one of those buildings.  A further 13 SBAs had been started but not completed.

In contrast, by the same time in England, 2,477 buildings identified with unsafe cladding have started or completed remediation works, representing 49% of buildings within the programme.

In England, there is a target to complete the remediation of high-rise buildings by 2029 and for mid-rise buildings to have either been completely remediated by the date, or to have a plan in place with a date set for completion.

In Scotland, no such target exists.

Mr Rennie said:  

“In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, ministers should be bending over backwards to remove unsafe cladding.

“But these figures show that the SNP are nowhere: they have made next to no progress, leaving so many homeowners and residents in a distressing limbo.

“The Scottish Government have repeatedly failed to appreciate the dangers posed by certain building materials. They have refused to set a deadline for removing cladding and they have taken an unbelievably blasé approach to the problems of RAAC concrete.  

“The SNP have acted inexplicably slowly. They must urgently step up the pace in remediating at-risk buildings and keep everyone who is potentially affected informed and updated on progress.”