Ministers accused of ‘dragging their heels’ on removing Grenfell-style cladding

Scottish ministers have been accused of “dragging their heels” in replacing Grenfell-style cladding as the bulk of the removal work is earmarked for 2025.

The Scottish Government’s spending review pledged £180 million over three years to remove the potentially harmful insulation.

However, the vast majority of funds – £100 million – will be allocated in 2025/26, while a £30 million budget will start in 2023/24, increasing to £50 million in 2024/25.

The cladding remuneration programme, which aims to replace insulation in high-risk buildings which are fitted with aluminium composite material (ACM), was initially expected to be rolled out in 2022.

The harmful material was partly blamed for the fatal Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, which claimed the lives of 72 people.

More than 100 public buildings, including hospitals and schools, are believed to have the potentially flammable material.

A freedom of information request revealed that 88 primary and secondary schools in Scotland are encased in the potentially combustible insulation.

Mark Griffin, Scottish Labour’s housing spokesman, asked for an update on how many surveyors and fire engineers had been procured to carry out single building assessments earlier this year.

Housing Minister Shona Secretary replied that 29 buildings had been contacted so far to offer the direct provision of fire engineers.

She added: “Once we ascertain consent and details, we will move to the contracting process.”

Mr Griffin has hit out at the response, saying the Scottish Government is not moving fast enough.

He said: “It beggars belief that the SNP Government still don’t seem to grasp the urgency of the situation.

“After years of needless dither and delay, they have finally accepted that this dangerous cladding needs to go – but they are still dragging their heels making it happen.

“Every year that they fail to act is another year that people are left living and working in unsafe buildings.

“There is absolutely no more time to waste learning the lessons of the Grenfell tragedy – the SNP needs to stop this dangerous negligence and speed up this programme.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are taking priority action to address cladding safety issues, having expanded our Single Building Assessment programme so that more than 100 buildings will be assessed. The vast majority of buildings in the initial phase of our programme have secured fire engineers.

“A new streamlined process for commissioning the assessments will help identify at-risk buildings more quickly. We still expect the vast majority of buildings assessed through this programme to be found to be safe. We have allocated almost £400 million to this programme of work.

“We’ve also agreed with some of the country’s largest housing developers to work together to address cladding issues as part of our new Scottish Safer Buildings Accord, giving affected homeowners a clear path to ensuring their homes are safe.

“Our ban on combustible cladding from domestic and other high risk buildings applies on buildings of 11m and higher, whereas elsewhere in the UK it is 18m. We have also banned the highest risk metal composite cladding material from any new building of any height.”