In this year’s Glasgow Household Survey, feedback was received on actions needed to address the Housing Emergency.

The majority of respondents believed that empty houses should be brought back into use and also, they supported turning empty commercial buildings into homes.

There are significant barriers to ensuring that empty buildings can be provided for housing.

As you may be aware, the demolition of old buildings is exempt from VAT when considered to be part of a new construction project such as the building of new homes.

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By comparison, any refurbishment work is liable for VAT. Therefore, it can be cheaper to demolish a historic empty building than to refurbish it.

Scottish Greens are calling for changes in the tax system to enable the refurbishment of empty, historic buildings to be prioritised rather than demolishing them.

It is acknowledged that historic buildings which could be saved and refurbished for future use are instead being bulldozed by developers.

This is seen to be hollowing out our streets simply because our tax system makes it cheaper to demolish than to preserve.

Glasgow’s beautiful architecture is something we should be proud of. We should be incentivising its restoration rather than destruction.

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We know that the impact on our environment of demolition and construction of new buildings is significant. This should be avoided when a perfectly usable building could simply be refurbished.

A demolition levy and VAT reductions for refurbishment have both been long championed by the construction industry. The Chartered Institute of Building published a report in 2022 which argued for such a levy.

There are renewed calls for the Scottish Parliament to give local authorities powers to raise a demolition levy.

This is outlined in the Chartered Institute of Building’s ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ discussion paper.

The creation of a Demolition Levy could maximise refurbishment of houses and minimise the environmental impact of building work.

It is recognised that the number of buildings being knocked down must be reduced because demolition and rebuilding contribute to climate change.

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Old, poorly insulated homes have been knocked down and replaced with buildings needing less heating. However, it is argued by engineers that replacing buildings is often bad for the climate.

This is because emissions are created to make building materials such as steel, bricks, cement, plastics, glass, and aluminium.

Demolishing and rebuilding can result in twice the amount of emissions by requiring the manufacture of two sets of construction materials.

Through cross-party discussions involving MSPs and councillors, we can create a new demolition levy power for councils.

This is a simple change that the Scottish Government could make right now to help us build into the future in a sustainable way.

Also, we must urge our MPs and the UK Government to make the necessary changes to the VAT structure to bolster housing retrofit works.

We can ensure that it is financially viable to restore and improve the sustainability of construction across the city.

The efforts to retrofit Glasgow’s homes have to move forward quickly in response to the housing emergency.”