Chamber and committees

We require projects funded as part of our fuel poverty schemes including Local Authority Area Based Schemes, Warmer Homes Scotland and the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund to comply with all relevant building regulations, retrofit standards and guarantee requirements. The PAS 2035 standard has applied since July 2021 and retrofit installers must now work to this specification.

PAS 2035 standardises the fabric first approach to retrofit and installation of measures by installers, not the quality or effectiveness of the energy efficiency product measures themselves. As for audits and inspections then these are carried out by TrustMark which is the approval scheme for PAS 2035 and involves 10% desktop audits and 10% onsite audits. The work completed in a property is lodged into the TrustMark Data Warehouse where records of the improvement works are held identifying all aspects of the design and installation with all supporting warranties required for the work. In the event that the standards have not been met then TrustMark working with the Scheme Providers will take the necessary steps to address this through their Operating Framework and deliver remediation and redress where required.. This is also underpinned by access to the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman where disputes need to be escalated.

This information is not collected in the High Rise Inventory.

We work with stakeholders regularly including with our Cladding Stakeholder Group to ensure all appropriate solutions are considered for homeowners and residents in affected buildings.

The Single Building Assessment programme in Scotland will not have a restriction to 18m and above. The UK Government's recent announcement for England does focus solely on buildings over 18m. Whilst we welcome the announcement from the UK Government about ensuring that the polluter pays, a collective approach is needed to secure reparations from developers and the wider construction industry.

The revised Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks were introduced on 29 October 2021.

Our building by building approach aims to offer reassurance and our priority is always to secure the safety of people in their own homes. Inspections are underway and we expect the first completed reports soon.

We expect that the majority of buildings will be shown to be safe, but where issues are found, then we will seek the most appropriate solutions to remediation. We urge other parties, such as developers, to continue to play their part where construction is found to be unsafe.

An independent consultation analysis by Optimal Economics was published on 17 January 2022 which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/analysis-responses-building-standards-fire-safety-consultation-external-wall-systems/

Minutes of the third meeting of the Fire Safety Review Panel will be ratified at the fourth review panel meeting on 24 January 2022 and published shortly thereafter.

The next fire safety review panel meeting on 24 January 2022 will be the final panel meeting, subject to any new evidence emerging from the Grenfell Inquiry. The Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 are expected to be laid in the Scottish Parliament by the end of March with supporting guidance published in the Spring. The new regulations and guidance are planned to come into force on 1 October 2022.

The Open Market Shared Equity scheme is targeted at first time buyers on low to moderate incomes regardless of the source of their income. This includes those in employment and in receipt of benefits. In 2020-21, the average gross household income of beneficiaries was £27,000 and 43% of households had at least one child.

Local authorities were issued with non-statutory guidance to support them in their administration of the Tenant Grant Fund on 17 September 2021. A copy of this guidance can be found here .

We know some local authorities are already delivering Tenant Grant Fund payments at pace. For example, Dundee City Council has already paid out over £36,000 in grants, providing vital support to tenants in financial need caused by the pandemic.

All 32 local authorities are required to submit their first quarterly report by the end of December 2021, which will set out the number and level of grants issued (broken down by tenure); how many of these grants paid off the rent arrears in full or partially; and how many tenancies were sustained, at that time, as a direct result of the grant being paid.

The Scottish Government does not set a target timescale for assessing applications for grant assistance to deliver affordable housing above the applicable affordable housing investment benchmark level.

Using information from our Housing and Regeneration Programme system (HARP), we have compiled the following table showing the average calendar days from the initial tender application submission date to the actual tender approval date for those projects submitted at above benchmark level over the period Quarter 3 2017-18 to Quarter 2 2021-22. It should be noted, however, that while we encourage early engagement on likely project costs prior to tender applications being submitted, there can be instances where applications have missing information or require further, more detailed work by the grant applicant before they can be fully assessed.