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External wall assessors are expected to weigh all the appropriate evidence and apply their professional judgement in determining the extent to which external cladding requires to be removed from a particular building, with a view to achieving the overriding objective of bringing the building to a tolerable level of risk.

To explain the statement large areas of the façade reference is made to the current standards. The limitation to work which does not need to meet current standards and can be ‘no worse than existing’ sits under Type 25A to schedule 3 of the building regulations being Replacement of part of an external wall cladding system when the replacement is to make a minor repair. Minor repair is described as isolated repair or replacement of elements of cladding which are physically damaged or have degraded to the point that the element is no longer fit for its intended purpose. So, in that context, Where large areas of the façade are being remediated means any replacement of part of an external wall cladding system other than when the replacement is to make a minor repair. The term large areas of facade is not used within the SBA, with assessors directed to the building regulations in section 2.4 of the document.

An estimate as to the level of combustible cladding that will remain on buildings will not be able to be calculated until all buildings with such cladding have undergone a Single Building Assessment (SBA) to understand their condition and remediation required. These include buildings that are developer led where we do not hold all information. The aim of the remediation works following an SBA will be to ensure a building reaches a tolerable level of risk.

The Scottish Government will review and respond to the evidence and recommendations presented within the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report once it is published.

Our evaluation reports are available via this link: Shared equity schemes: evaluation reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The evaluation concluded that OMSE provides significant additionality, and is effective in enabling lower income households to overcome price and deposit constraints to become a homeowner.

The Scottish Government has continued to monitor the performance of OMSE which delivered over 900 affordable homes for priority groups and first time buyers in 2023-24. In 2022 we also made several evidence based adjustments to the scheme to further support priority groups into affordable home ownership.

Based on previous years’ financial spend we expect that the current budget could provide up to an additional 466 units.

Within a backdrop of wider real term funding cuts we provisionally allocated £27m Financial Transactions for FY 2024-25 to re-open OMSE on 20 June 2024.

Based on the previous financial years spend and units, we have estimated that this allocation could provide an estimated 466 units.

Details on the application process and eligibility criteria for the Open Market Share Equity Scheme (OMSE) can be found in our administrative procedures: https://www.gov.scot/publications/open-market-shared-equity-omse-administrative-procedures-2020/ .

Due to wider funding constraints, we have operated the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) with a reduced budget in 2024-25.

Following extremely high demand in June 2024 and in order to ensure that we settle all properties within budget, we have paused new applications from 19 July 2024 and will review remaining budget allocations in the coming months.

The scheme is likely to reopen when current passports expire and/or are withdrawn making funding available for reallocation.

The following table shows a breakdown of the spend for the Open Marked Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) in each financial year:

The Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) is available to first-time buyers and priority access groups. OMSE is a demand led scheme and as such The Scottish Government does not estimate how many priority access applications there will be per financial year.

Applicants to OMSE have the choice to declare on their application which route they are applying under, whether that be as a first-time buyer or a priority access group. This means that some first-time buyers may also be disabled, a veteran etc however this information will not be captured as part of their application.

Due to the demand led nature of the scheme we also do not project estimates for geographical or Local Authority areas.

Published information on OMSE home purchases in each Local Authority area for previous financial years can be found here: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .