Rennie: No excuses for SNP’s life-threatening cladding failures

Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today said that there are “no excuses” for the SNP making glacial progress on removing dangerous cladding after new figures revealed that remediation work has only been completed on a mere 0.2% of potentially affected buildings.

The Scottish Government publishes information on Single Building Assessments (SBAs) every month. SBAs assess any risk to human life as a result of cladding.

New figures show that:

• Out of an estimated 1,260-1,450 residential buildings which may require remediation work, just 3 SBAs have been completed, and there are just 2 buildings with active remediation work.
• Only a further 12 SBAs are underway, yet to be completed.
• This is despite the Cladding Remediation Programme having received 600 expressions of interest (EOIs) via the Single Open Call- this allows those responsible for buildings to ask for them to be assessed.

This lack of progress contrasts sharply with the situation in England, where 2,490 buildings identified with unsafe cladding have started or completed remediation works, representing 48% of buildings within the programme.

Mr Rennie said:

“In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, there can be no excuses for making such glacial progress, but this SNP Government continue to blunder their way through in slow motion.

“This is an issue where Scotland simply cannot afford to fall behind; by moving so sluggishly with the necessary building works, the SNP government are only increasing the risks to peoples’ lives.

“That’s why I am imploring ministers to urgently step up the pace in fixing at-risk buildings and keep homeowners, residents and local authorities informed on developments.”