Chamber and committees

External wall assessors are expected to weigh all the appropriate evidence and apply their professional judgement in determining the extent to which external cladding requires to be removed from a particular building, with a view to achieving the overriding objective of bringing the building to a tolerable level of risk.

The single building assessment technical specification was published on the 21st of June 2024 and provides detailed guidance to competent persons on how they should conduct a single building assessment (SBA) in Scotland. The SBA makes clear that the relevant benchmark guidance includes the PAS 9980, PAS 79-2 and the Benchmark criteria from the Scottish Domestic Technical Handbook. The competent person should have due regard to all of this guidance in undertaking the SBA report. The SBA sets out the need to conduct a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) and Fire Risk Appraisal of external walls (FRAEW). It also sets out templates and an approach that is relevant in Scotland. We engaged extensively with stakeholders across Scotland through the Task and Finish Group to develop the SBA technical specification and adopted the PAS 9980 standard as there is evidence that it is known and understood widely across the industry in Scotland. The objective of the assessment it to bring the building to a tolerable level of risk.

Due to wider funding constraints, we have operated the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) with a reduced budget in 2024-25.

Following extremely high demand in June 2024 and in order to ensure that we settle all properties within budget, we have paused new applications from 19 July 2024 and will review remaining budget allocations in the coming months.

The scheme is likely to reopen when current passports expire and/or are withdrawn making funding available for reallocation.

The Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) is available to first-time buyers and priority access groups. OMSE is a demand led scheme and as such The Scottish Government does not estimate how many priority access applications there will be per financial year.

Applicants to OMSE have the choice to declare on their application which route they are applying under, whether that be as a first-time buyer or a priority access group. This means that some first-time buyers may also be disabled, a veteran etc however this information will not be captured as part of their application.

Due to the demand led nature of the scheme we also do not project estimates for geographical or Local Authority areas.

Published information on OMSE home purchases in each Local Authority area for previous financial years can be found here: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The following table shows a breakdown of the spend for the Open Marked Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) in each financial year:

Our evaluation reports are available via this link: Shared equity schemes: evaluation reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The evaluation concluded that OMSE provides significant additionality, and is effective in enabling lower income households to overcome price and deposit constraints to become a homeowner.

The Scottish Government has continued to monitor the performance of OMSE which delivered over 900 affordable homes for priority groups and first time buyers in 2023-24. In 2022 we also made several evidence based adjustments to the scheme to further support priority groups into affordable home ownership.

Based on previous years’ financial spend we expect that the current budget could provide up to an additional 466 units.

Details on the application process and eligibility criteria for the Open Market Share Equity Scheme (OMSE) can be found in our administrative procedures: https://www.gov.scot/publications/open-market-shared-equity-omse-administrative-procedures-2020/ .

Within a backdrop of wider real term funding cuts we provisionally allocated £27m Financial Transactions for FY 2024-25 to re-open OMSE on 20 June 2024.

Based on the previous financial years spend and units, we have estimated that this allocation could provide an estimated 466 units.

The following table provides a breakdown of how many applications from (a) registered social landlords and (b) local authorities have been (i) received and (ii) approved for the National Acquisition Plan in total for 2023-2024. The table also provides a breakdown of whether approvals were for second hand acquisitions or new build off the shelf purchases from developers.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on whether purchases were (i) open market purchases with vacant possession, (ii) off-market purchases with vacant possession, (iii) purchases where an owner-occupier cannot afford the required maintenance or refurbishment of their home and wishes to sell and remain in the home as a tenant in the social rented sector and (v) properties from landlords leaving the private rented sector with a tenant in situ. This level of detail would not necessarily be known at approval stage given many of the homes would not yet have come to market or been identified.

The commitment announced on 26 April will provide up to £40 million in 2024-2025, with an equivalent commitment in 2025-2026 to be confirmed subject to the standard budget setting processes.