The Scottish Government’s response to a potentially huge building safety crisis has been slammed by campaigners as “negligent and inadequate”.
We previously told how UK Government regulators wrote to every building owner in England in December about the structural risks of “transfer slab” construction.
It came after two London blocks were dramatically evacuated last year due to suspected defects in the building material which it was feared could cause catastrophic collapse.
But despite hundreds of Scots buildings being possibly affected, all the SNP administration has done is discuss it in an internal “talking shop”, a housing group claimed.
Sean Clerkin, of the Scottish Tenants Organisation, said: “The Scottish Government has been negligent up until now, failing to issue warning notices to all building owners about the dangers of transfer slabs.
“These have a potential failure mechanism that could result in the partial collapse of buildings in Scotland.
“To date, government officials appear to have done little more on this crucial matter of building safety than raise it in a talking shop. That’s completely inadequate.”
In correspondence with Clerkin, Holyrood officials said the matter had been raised at its Cross Sector Building Safety Forum in February and they took the issue “very seriously”.
The Scottish Government has previously been criticised as too slow in tackling other major construction scandals such as flammable cladding and RAAC concrete.
View 4 ImagesSean Clerkin(Image: Garry F McHarg Daily Record)
The Sunday Mail also told last year how SNP ministers were accused of “passing the buck” over collapse fears around Large Panel System (LPS) tower blocks. Clerkin added: “The new Scottish Government has to immediately act by warning all building owners to assess their buildings.
“And if they contain transfer slabs that have cracks or defects to get them properly remediated.
“We are months behind England in this respect and delays can no longer be tolerated.” The Welsh government wrote to all NHS boards and trusts in January outlining the risks of transfer slabs in hospitals.
The slabs are floor arrangements in multi-storey buildings where a load-bearing column sits on top of a thickened reinforced concrete slab without a supporting column.
But experts are worried about an effect called “punching shear”, where the slab is overloaded by a column and cracks.
View 4 ImagesTransfer slabs are a floor arrangement which became popular in the early 2000s(Image: RICS / Trevor Rushton)
Potentially thousands of buildings have been built with this method across Britain in the last 30 years – including blocks of flats, student accommodation, retail, hotels and multi-storey car parks.
Last year in London, two blocks of flats were evacuated over transfer slab fears. Residents at Sapphire Court had just four hours to leave as cracks were found.
In its letter to Clerkin, the Scottish Government said there are “no known cases of building collapse in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK attributed to this issue”.
View 4 ImagesHow transfer slabs work – and the risks(Image: RICS / Trevor Rushton)
Officials wrote: “Scotland operates a long‐standing structural Certifier of Design scheme… providing an additional safeguard to help ensure that designs meet appropriate professional standards, with enhanced pre‐construction scrutiny for higher‐risk buildings only introduced in England within the last two years.
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“The Scottish Government continues to monitor this issue closely and remains in regular contact with the Building Safety Regulator, including discussions on any further guidance that may be issued at UK level.”
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