Scotland’s proposed building safety levy could raise £30m a year

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PROPOSED new legislation could raise around £30 million per year to help fund work to fix residential buildings with unsafe cladding which have no linked developer, the Scottish Government has said.

If passed, the Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill would see a tax charged on the construction of certain new residential properties in line with equivalent legislation in England.

The Scottish Government added that latest estimates indicate that its cladding remediation programme could cost £1.7 billion over a 15-year period

Scottish Government public finance minister Ivan McKee said, “The Scottish Government is committed to doing what is right and necessary to address the challenge of fixing buildings affected by unsafe cladding.

“That includes putting the appropriate funding arrangements in place to ensure that the associated costs of cladding remediation do not fall directly onto affected homeowners.

“I know that developers share our determination to keep people safe and this levy will ensure they make a fair contribution to these costs, just as they will be doing in England.

“I also welcome the continued cooperation of developers who have accepted responsibility for the assessments and any required mitigation and remediation of their buildings.”