Over the last eight years since the tragedy of the Grenfell fire, the landscape surrounding fire and building safety has evolved, with important progress being made across the UK. Although fire and building safety is devolved to the Scottish Parliament – meaning that much of the UK Government's response does not apply in Scotland – developments have taken place north of the border, too.
As 2025 comes to an end, we have outlined the key developments that are bound to have ripple effects across the construction sector.
Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 (the "2024 Act")
This legislation is central to, and underpins, the Scottish Government's commitment to address life-critical fire safety defects across Scotland. As part of the 2024 Act, statutory powers now allow the Scottish Ministers to assess, mitigate and remediate defects. In addition, this Act provides for the maintenance of the Cladding Assurance Register and the establishment of a responsible developers' scheme.
The 2024 Act derives from the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill, which was unanimously passed by the Scottish Parliament in May 2024 and received Royal Assent the following month. It came into effect on 6 January 2025 – making it the first key development of this year.
Standards
On the same date, the Scottish Government published the Standards governing the Single Building Assessment ("SBA") and Additional Work Assessment ("AWA") – created from the 2024 Act. These Standards incorporate and give statutory effect to the SBA Specification, which was published previously on 21 June 2024.
The SBA assesses and identifies:
- (i) any risk to human life that is created or exacerbated (either directly or indirectly) by a building's external wall cladding system; and
- (ii) the necessary mitigation or remediation works required in respect of these risks.
The AWA is only required if additional information emerges and will identify any further works than those identified by the SBA.
The 2024 Act ensures that the SBA and AWA will be carried out in line with the standards specified by the Scottish Ministers. The publication of these Standards grants the implementation. This represents a significant development as the SBA is a fundamental step towards addressing life critical fire safety defects in a particular building.
The Scottish Government has confirmed that any SBA carried out before 6 January 2025 will need to be renewed to ensure the Standards are achieved. However, it has been acknowledged that existing information from the existing SBA may be used.
The Scottish Government published its latest update on 18 November 2025. In this, it confirmed that as of 31 October 2025, 16 SBAs had been completed (in accordance with the aforementioned Specification published on 21 June 2024), all of which had identified required remediation work.
Single Open Call
The Scottish Government-backed scheme was launched on 25 March 2025. Eligible owners (including private residents, local authorities and Registered Social Landlords) and their representatives can apply for funding in respect of carrying out: (i) an SBA; and (ii) any works identified in the SBA.
The Scottish Government has committed £20 million to the fund to cover all eligible applications submitted before the end of 2025. A further £10 million has been committed to support the installation and upgrade of interlinked fire alarm systems in certain buildings, if deemed necessary in the relevant SBA.
In its recent update (18 November), the Scottish Government confirmed that, as of 31 October, 1,203 applications have been made under the Single Open Call. More than half of these expressions of interest were submitted by social landlords. Whilst not all expressions of interest will be eligible for funding, these figures evidence strong uptake of the Single Open Call since its launch.
Scottish Building Safety Levy
The Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill was introduced by the Scottish Government on 5 June 2025 and is currently undergoing scrutiny in the Scottish Parliament.
This Bill seeks to introduce a new tax (known as 'The Scottish Building Safety Levy') that will be imposed on developers in respect of the construction and conversion of certain residential property developments in Scotland. If passed, this tax is expected to generate upwards of £360 million over its lifetime, which will contribute towards the costs of the Scottish Government's Cladding Remediation Programme – including steps being taken to address the defects.
Whilst this Bill has yet to be passed, the proposed implementation of the tax has been delayed by a year to 1 April 2028. Indicative rates of the tax are due to be published by the Scottish Government in June 2026, with the intention of providing a 22-month period for the industry to prepare for the implementation of the levy.
More information on the Scottish Building Safety Levy can be found in our article here.
Developer Remediation Contract (the "DRC")
On 21 November 2025, the Cabinet Secretary for Housing published their final version of the DRC. This represents the culmination of extensive negotiations with developers over recent years.
Nine developers have previously signed the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord ("SSBA"), voluntarily committing to remediate life critical fire safety defects in buildings for which they have developed or refurbished over the last 30 years. The DRC will take this voluntary commitment and impose legally binding obligations on signatory developers.
The Cabinet Secretary for Housing has requested that the nine developers committed to the SSBA sign the DRC no later than 28 November 2025. However, the annexures thereto are incomplete, and we understand some developers are seeking to continue negotiations of the DRC.
This moment is crucial for private developers. Private developers are under pressure to progress their own mitigation and remediation efforts, as committed under the SSBA. Whilst some have already begun the work, we are only at the outset of developer-led activity in Scotland.
More information on the DRC is in our previous article here.
MFMac's Construction team provides legal advice throughout the lifecycle of a project, from inception to completion. This includes fire safety defects mitigation and remediation projects in Scotland. In acting for our clients, we have been at the forefront as fire safety defects have been addressed in Scotland. This includes advising clients on the Developer Remediation Contract as it has evolved and supporting our clients to procure and complete mitigation and remediation works at buildings in Scotland.
