The devastating consequences of safety deficiencies in properties, such as unsafe cladding, was placed into sharp focus after the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017.

However, the undue financial burden on private owners having to pay for these costly remediations has slowed progress.

A new proposal has recently been launched which would see developers being made responsible for a new tax on residential buildings as part of the building control process. The revenue from this would then fund the remediation of unsafe buildings.

The Scottish Government has published a joint consultation, along with the UK Treasury, on devolving powers to Scotland for its own Scottish Building Safety Levy, complementing the proposed English equivalent.

The levy would not be a fixed price per unit, but instead would be charged on the development's floorspace. There are notable proposed exemptions such as affordable housing and smaller developments with fewer than 10 units.

The consultation runs until 19 February and can be found here. It is part of a set of building safety measures including the Housing (Cladding Remediation) Bill which is also currently before the Scottish Parliament and gives powers to Scottish Ministers to assess and remediate unsafe buildings.