From ambition to delivery: CIOB sets out its ‘Big Three’ election priorities for the construction sector

Ahead of the election, the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has published its manifesto, ‘From Ambition to Delivery’, setting out what we believe are the three most urgent policy priorities the next Scottish Government should adopt to ensure the health of Scotland’s homes and buildings. 

Scotland approaches this election facing profound and interconnected challenges: a formally-declared housing emergency, ambitious climate change targets, and the need to deliver a Just Transition that works for people and communities. Each of these objectives depends, fundamentally, on a well-functioning built environment and a construction sector that is properly supported to deliver. 

In Scotland, successive governments have set out ambitious objectives and rightly recognised the scale of these challenges. The problem for successful governments is not intent. It is delivery. 

Too often, policy is developed and implemented by portfolio programme, or individual funding stream, without sufficient regard for how decisions in one part of government affect outcomes elsewhere. In the built environment, this fragmentation has real-world consequences. Well-intentioned policies fail to land, delivery slows, costs rise, and households are left dealing with the fallout. 

Our manifesto sets out three cross-portfolio priorities and steps the next Scottish Government can take to support the construction sector and meet housing, climate, and Just Transition objectives.  

Priority one: Retrofit and energy efficiency 

Retrofitting Scotland’s existing buildings is essential to meeting climate targets, reducing fuel poverty, and preserving housing supply. However, the current funding systems for retrofit actively undermine delivery. Annual competitive rounds, cost-matching requirements and overly prescriptive criteria make long-term planning almost impossible.  

What the next Scottish Government should do 

• Establish a Ministerial Oversight Group on Retrofit and, through it, develop a National Retrofit Delivery and Resource Plan.  
  This Oversight Group and Delivery plan both must align housing, climate, finance and skills; provide multi-year funding certainty; and support place-based delivery. Without system-level reform, Scotland will continue to set the right ambitions but fall short on delivery. 

Priority two: Skills in the construction sector 

Scotland cannot deliver its housing, climate or building safety objectives without people to build, retrofit and maintain our homes. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) estimates 3,590 extra workers across a variety of roles will be needed each year from 2025-2029. Challenges with training frameworks and education pathways are not producing the competent professionals Scotland needs. 
 
What the next Scottish Government should do 

• Commit to a government-led Construction Skills Action Plan, equivalent in ambition to the Offshore Wind Skills Plan.
  This plan should align education policy, funding, workforce need, address barriers to apprenticeships, and support upskilling of the existing workforce. 

Priority three: Building quality and safety 

RAAC, damp and mould, and legacy defects have exposed a deeper failure in how Scotland manages its existing buildings. We lack clear governance and funding frameworks to maintain and safeguard homes, particularly in tenements and mixed-tenure blocks.  

What the next Scottish Government should do 

• Government must create the frameworks and governance structures needed to effectively address building safety challenges, including implementing the Scottish Law Commission’s recommendations on Compulsory Owners’ Associations and the Tenement Maintenance Working Group’s proposals on reserve funds. 
• Further, the next Scottish Government should explore a demolition levy as a new devolved revenue source to fund much-needed building maintenance and safety works. In addition to addressing the long-standing challenges posed by the existing VAT structure for retrofit and maintenance, this levy could extend the public resources available to tackle building safety issues.  

Without both governance reform and new funding, building safety risks will worsen and policies on safety, retrofit, and housing supply will keep working against one another. 

Systems, not siloes 

The next Scottish Government has an opportunity to move beyond fragmented interventions and fix the underlying systems that enable delivery across the built environment sector. By taking a whole-system approach to retrofit, skills, and building safety, they can bridge the gap between aspiration and action. 
 

Scan the code for our manifesto:

This article is sponsored by CIOB.

www.ciob.org