Banning combustible cladding from buildings will not necessarily save lives but would fuel a “mortgage lending crisis”, the Scottish government claims.
In a series of emails sent as part of a safety review drawn up after the Grenfell Tower fire, officials warned of the “unintended consequences” of such a cladding ban, including the potential for legal action.
Ministers were told that “any ban on combustible cladding materials through amendments to building or fire safety legislation is likely to exacerbate the mortgage lending crisis and a full public consultation exercise would be required in order to avoid judicial review”.
This would “impact many thousands of residential buildings” and lead to calls for the Scottish government to “provide funding”, the notes warn.
The Scottish government officially estimates that about 700 high-rise properties are covered in material that are vulnerable to ignition.
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In February an investigation by The Times discovered thousands of flat owners whose properties have been rendered worthless by fire safety breaches similar to those at Grenfell.
Residents were not informed of evidence that their homes are wrapped in combustible materials after they were excluded from the Scottish government’s High Rise Inventory review into fire safety. They only discovered that their flats — including more than 1,500 new-builds in upmarket developments in Glasgow — were effectively valueless after commissioning their own costly private surveys. A government document from last July released under freedom of information, advises against banning the materials.
Polyethylene inside ACM panels on Grenfell Tower was cited as the “primary cause” of the spread of fire up the cladding that led to the loss of 72 lives in June 2017.
An annexe to the Scottish government note says: “A ban on all buildings would be expensive with no benefit in the number of lives saved and injuries prevented following the outbreak of fire. Almost all fire fatalities are a result of smoke inhalation from a fire inside the building, not on cladding. The cost-benefit analysis will not support the ban and open ministers to criticism.”
The document says that the cost of assessing existing buildings is “likely to run to billions with no benefits accrued from the reduction in fire deaths and injuries annually in Scotland”.
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Last August Northern Ireland said it would introduce a ban on the use of combustible materials on the outside of high-rise buildings, similar to that already in place in England.
This leaves Scotland as the only country in the UK that continues to permit combustible materials on the outside of all buildings, regardless of height or use. In the notes, Scottish government officials said the move in England “had unintended consequences as not every conceivable scenario was listed in the regulation”.
Graham Simpson, the Scottish Conservative infrastructure spokesman, said: “Combustible cladding should be banned and removed from people’s homes. Families deserve to know their homes are safe yet the SNP are dithering and have sat on money from the UK government which should have been used to remove unsafe cladding.”
In February Robert Jenrick, the UK housing secretary, said Scottish ministers had done “absolutely nothing” with a £100 million fund to help flat owners affected by the cladding crisis.
Kevin Stewart, the Scottish housing minister, said at the time he would tackle the problem differently to the “first-come, first-served” approach in England.
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A Scottish government spokesman said: “From the start both the minister and the members of the group have been clear that mortgage valuation and lending issues have arisen as a result of real safety concerns arising from the tragic events at Grenfell Tower.
“Everyone involved in this work agrees that the approach must be to address these safety concerns. By addressing the safety of people and buildings, this in turn will lead to solutions which meet the needs of homeowners, borrowers, valuers and lenders for home buying and mortgage lending.”
