I met Ben Mcpherson, our MSP, to bring the issue of the single building assessment (SBA) in block 9
Western Harbour View to his attention. Following are the main points we discussed
-he was already aware of the huge delays in the Scottish Government (ScottGov) taking action.
-he had been able to help some constituents already who were in a similar situation.
-as of last week, he is no longer a government minister which means he is able to deal with the
government over this issue more vocally.
-I told him that residents within block 9WHV were no longer able to sell their properties to buyers
needing mortgages without a valid ESW1 certificate.
-The only apparent option is to sell at below market value to investors.
-I believed there were a number of owners in this situation within block 9, and possibly within the
remainder of the development, but that the TENOA chair had been unable to provide me with any
numbers.
-I outlined to him the points I have taken from the correspondence I have had so far on this subject
with the Scottish government which are:
-the need for an SBA was announced in 2024 with a 5 year deadline for completion of the project.
However, ScottGov have only now, in 2026, begun to act on obtaining quotes for SBA assessments
for which they are responsible after what appears to be two years of inaction.
-With the new requirement for an SBA comes the need for the surveyors who have fire safety
qualifications to obtain additional training.
-ScottGov state they will prioritise SBA assessments on those buildings for which they have a
responsibility. Once they have received all of the quotes for assessments (presumably throughout
the whole of Scotland) they will then allocate budgets for the actual assessments.
-Our own Element Factors have returned the three quotations for assessments to ScottGov within
the required deadline in June, but at the present time have not received a reply.
-ScottGov have not made any commitment for remediation work should it be required following the
SBA assessment
-ScottGov have also not budgeted for any remediation work as yet.
-Ben took this all on board and asked me to forward all my current correspondence with ScottGov to
him personally.
-He explained that his goal was to push ScottGov into moving much faster on this issue and
ultimately getting them to make a clear commitment to undertake remediation work.
-Once we had that commitment, homeowners would then be able to sell their homes.
-This was a positive meeting and I was encouraged by his attitude and his existing longstanding
knowledge of the difficulties that the new SBA requirement had created for homeowners.