Scotland’s Cladding Remediation Programme update: Q3 2025

Introduction

Scotland’s Cladding Remediation Programme aims to protect residents and homeowners addressing the risks to life and other impacts associated with unsafe external wall cladding systems.  

Following the Grenfell Tower Fire, initial actions in Scotland primarily focussed on assurance, reviewing regulation and building standards, and establishing the prevalence of the most flammable types of cladding.

The Cladding Remediation Programme was initially primarily focused on the design and testing of the Single Building Assessment (SBA) process, via a ‘pilot’ phase. Learning from the ‘pilot’ phase demonstrated in practice a number of potential challenges, such as delays and obstacles to assessing and remediating buildings due to difficulties in obtaining consent from owners and residents. Steps to address these challenges were taken by bringing forward the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 which commenced on 6 January 2025.

To be within the scope of Scotland’s Cladding Remediation Programme, a building must meet all of the following criteria:

• is a flatted, residential building
• has an external wall cladding system
• is 11 metres or more in height (from ground level to uppermost habitable floor level)
• was constructed or developed between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022

Independent fire engineers were commissioned to develop a unique Single Building Assessment Specification (released in June 2024), and the SBA compliance and assurance standards were released alongside the Act in January 2025. An SBA can be carried out to assess any risk caused or exacerbated by a building’s external wall system, and identify if any work is needed to eliminate or mitigate these risks, and must be carried out by a competent qualified person.

On 25 March 2025, Scottish Ministers launched the Single Open Call, which enables residential property owners or their representatives to submit expressions of interest to the Programme identifying buildings which may need assessment, and (subject to the height and age of their property) to apply for government funding for an SBA. This funding is being made available on an equitable basis to support assessment of both social housing and private sector residential properties. The Next Phase: Plan of Action published on 7 August 2025 then launched a further stage of the Single Open Call, offering financial support from Scottish Government for mitigation and remediation measures, where these had been found to be required by an SBA.

Discussions are currently are underway with developers who signed the Developer Commitment Letter and these developers will be invited to sign the Developer Remediation Contract once it is finalised. This will then provide the contractual basis for them to take forward assessment and remediation on buildings in scope for which they have accepted responsibility.  

This release provides a range of metrics describing the progress of expressions of interest made to the Single Open Call, and includes breakdowns by type of applicant and local authority area. It also provides users with information about the progress of SBAs and remediation, and the Cladding Remediation Programme’s financial expenditure.

An Official Statistics in Development Publication for Scotland

These statistics are official statistics in development. Official statistics in development may be new or existing statistics, and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We intend to develop these statistics to include information from new and improved data sources as they become available. We will also engage with stakeholders to maximise the use of available data and develop effective processes. This will allow us to include a broader range of metrics and more detailed breakdowns. However, users should be aware that official statistics in development may have a wider degree of uncertainty and require extra caution when interpreting results.

The Cladding Remediation Programme has recently started releasing monthly management information with the aim of providing more frequent updates on progress going forward. We are keeping the content, timing and labelling of data releases under review.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.