THE Scottish Government is trying to speed up the remediation process for buildings affected by unsafe cladding, a minister has said.

Housing minister Paul McLennan admitted it is taking “too long” for many homeowners to have their properties assessed.

The Grenfell tower fire of 2017 led to a number of fire safety changes, including a ban on combustible cladding for high-rise buildings.

Work is underway in Scotland to identify which buildings have unsafe cladding and how it can be removed.

On Monday, it emerged that an in-principle agreement had been reached with developers which could lead to them covering the costs for removing unsafe cladding installed when the properties were built.

McLennan spoke at Holyrood’s Housing Committee on Tuesday, where he updated MSPs on a pilot programme to identify buildings at risk.

He said: “I appreciate that for many homeowners this process has taken too long.”

This programme looked at 105 buildings around Scotland, he said, with assessments under way in 27 of these.

Opposition parties at Holyrood have previously called for faster action in removing unsafe cladding from residential buildings.

Conservative MSP Annie Wells asked the minister when residents could expect to see work start.

He said there was no “one size fits all” answer to this due to the different buildings involved.

The Government is developing legislation aimed at speeding up the process, he said.

He said: “Part of the reason for bringing forward some of the legislation is to try and quicken the pace on what we need to do in terms of the buildings.”

The minister said he hoped the new accord with housebuilders would also speed up progress.