Building Safety Levy Expert Advisory Group minutes: August 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Colin MacBean, Scottish Government

• Fionna Kell, Homes for Scotland

• John Stephen, A&J Stephen

• Ian Drummond, Taylor Wimpey

• Christopher Thorpe, Chartered Institute of Taxation

• Isobell d’Inverno, Law Society Scotland

• David Melhuish, Scottish Property Federation

• Scott McKenzie, Local Authority Building Standards Scotland

• Scottish Government officials 

• Revenue Scotland officials 

Items and actions

Agreement of previous meeting minutes 

Colin MacBean (CM) invited agreement on previous meeting minutes. 

There was an amendment requested to reflect Homes for Scotland’s fundamental concern with the principle of the Levy. 

Agreement of revised Terms of Reference 

CM invited comments on the redrafted Terms of Reference. 

• Terms of Reference cleared with no objections. 

Update on devolution of powers and Order in Council 

Scottish Government (SG) officials provided an update on the current progress of the devolution of powers with the new UK Government administration. 

Members raised queries regarding the English BSL and an action was taken to invite an official from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to update on the English Levy at a future meeting. 

Cost of Cladding Remediation Programme in Scotland 

SG officials updated on the cost of the cladding remediation in Scotland.  

• there is no definite number for the overall costs but a package of work is underway to build a more informed picture
• there is currently no reason to assume that costs will be significantly different from the costs in England

Members made several points relating to the unknown cost of the programme:  

• concerns were raised about the development of a policy without full information on cost
• it was highlighted that costs would provide certainty to homebuilders and that uncertainty on the cost may impact developers’ ability to properly respond to the upcoming consultation
• it was requested Scottish Government consider some modelled assumptions as it is important to identify the potential commercial risk to developers
• the cumulative impact of regulation in the sector should be considered e.g. changes to the building standards. New standards and changes mean heavier administrative burden aside from the levy and charges

CM noted that the specific points on modelling and cumulative impacts would be taken away by officials.

Consideration of draft consultation paper 

SG officials introduced the draft consultation paper and invited comment from members. The following comments were raised:  

• the consultation pre-supposes the taxpayer should be residential property developers and it was questioned as to whether this is appropriate and correct
• there should be recognition that some developers have already undertaken remediation works on their buildings
• there is no clear answer on how to protect Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and that though small developments broadly align with SMEs, bigger developers can also build small sites
• concerns that narrowing the scope of the tax would mean the burden would fall on a small number of larger developers
• an option to reduce the cost to developers in the short-term would be to extend the time period over which the levy is to be collected
• the scope of the tax and what is and will be included were points of concern
• in relation to the levy rates corresponding to sale price or an equivalent valuation, it was agreed that valuation would not be a problem and that this would be relatively easy for developers to carry out, if it had not carried out already

CM request for further feedback on the draft consultation document via correspondence within two weeks was agreed.  

Actions 

• group secretariat to invite an official from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to be invited to a future meeting to update on the English Levy
• members to provide further feedback on the consultation document within 2 weeks of the meeting via correspondence
• group secretariat to draft and circulate meeting minutes prior to next meeting
• group secretariat to confirm form of words with Homes for Scotland to reflect concerns to be included in previous meeting minute