There is not yet a final cost for work needed to make collapse-prone concrete in Scottish buildings safe, MSPs have heard.
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) has been causing concerns across the UK in recent months, prompting governments and councils to assess buildings for its presence.
As yet, 40 schools and more than 250 NHS buildings in Scotland are believed to have some form of Raac in them.
Speaking at the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on Tuesday, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said there had not yet been a final assessment of the cost to the public purse, but called on the UK Government to provide more capital funding.
The statement came after the committee heard earlier on Tuesday that West Lothian Council has spent about £53 million on work so far, with the local authority’s property services manager, David Baird, saying the cost is believed to be about £2,500 per square metre of Raac roofs.
Iain Morris, the acting director of asset management at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, said the service is looking at a bill of about £70 million.
Ms Somerville said: “Because of the sheer extent of work that is going on across the public sector, it’s not possible to have a genuine modelling of what the scale of financial commitment may be.
“So I do think it’s perhaps not helpful to speculate at this point until all that work has been done.”
She added: “At this point, it is not possible to put a final figure on that, but we do recognise that this is a concern across the public sector.
“That’s why we’re working very carefully with Cosla and, of course, other parts of the public sector to ensure that we have very, very close working so that we are alerted to the issues as they are found by the building owners who are responsible for the monitoring and the upkeep of our buildings.”
The minister also said the Government was in the “discovery phase” of assessing the impact of Raac in housing, telling the committee that details on “initial reporting and timescales” are expecting this month.
Urging the UK Government to provide more cash for the issue, Ms Somerville said: “The First Minister has, of course, been clear that we will spend what we need to spend to ensure that our buildings are safe for those who use them.
“But we need the UK Government to realise the seriousness of the situation and to provide devolved Governments with funding, and, of course, their own departments.
“The Deputy First Minister (Shona Robison) wrote to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury about this in August, only receiving an unsatisfactory response some weeks later.”
“The UK Government cannot simply put its head in the sand.
“New capital money has to be made available, rather than continuing cuts to capital budgets that we have seen and will continue to see in future years.”
The comments from Ms Somerville come as Aberdeen City Council announced it was undertaking a review of the 22,000 council-owned homes in the city for the substance.
According to the council, about 500 properties in the Balnagask area of the city are believed to have been built using Raac.
A spokeswoman for the local authority said: “We are liaising with tenants, private owners and occupiers, and landlords as a matter of priority.
“We will continue to keep residents informed and update our website with the latest information.”