The Building Safety Levy Countdown With Last Minute Changes

The building safety levy finally arrives in England October 1, 2026—but with a late set of amendment regulations, the scope of the building safety levy is only just settling.

A quick refresher: why the levy exists

The building safety levy (the levy) was introduced with The Building Safety Levy (England) Regulations 2025 (the Regulations), pursuant to the power under s105C of the Building Act 1984, inserted by section 58 of the Building Safety Act 2022.

The levy reflects some of the U.K. Government’s general aims and policy behind the building safety regime, including ensuring that those who contributed to cladding, fire safety, and general building safety issues are held accountable.

International impact

However, from a monetary perspective, the levy does not operate in isolation in England; it sits alongside other charges such as the Residential Property Developer Tax and Community Infrastructure Levy.

For international investors and developers weighing U.K. residential opportunities against U.S. or European alternatives, the cumulative cost of charges is a legitimate factor in comparative analysis, alongside the potential applicability of the lengthy gateway processes for residential developments that are also higher-risk buildings. Taken together, these novel building safety restraints could potentially dissuade international investors from the U.K. residential market altogether, pushing them either to other U.K. sectors or towards competing markets, including the U.S., where relevant charges and processes are more familiar. As a trans-Atlantic firm, we are well placed to monitor this.

However, thinking back to the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire, where lives were sadly lost, we must not forget the justifiable accountability and safety agenda behind U.K. building safety policy, including the levy.

Simplifying the regulations

From October 1, 2026, the levy will be charged on most building work that requires building control approval and results in either a new or a larger residential floorspace or building in England. It will be calculated per square meter of chargeable floorspace and payable in a single sum before the relevant completion or final certificate is issued.

Some further detail to be aware of:

• The levy will apply if all of the following apply:
  
  (i) building work results in either a new or larger residential floorspace
  (ii) the building work is part of or is a major residential development (creates 10 more dwellings or 30 more bedspaces for any PBSA e.g. this could be from zero to 10 or 30, or from 10 to 20 or 40)
  (iii) the client is not exempt
  (iv) the building is not exempt from the levy. 

• The client is the person named in the relevant building control application, so typically the developer. Clients exempt from the levy include non-profit registered providers of social housing.

• Buildings exempt from the levy include social housing, school accommodation, care homes, hospitals, hotels, and criminal justice accommodation—some similarities therefore with exclusions from higher risk buildings.

• Schedule 3 to the Regulations contains the area rates applicable for the levy formula; with some of the highest rates, unsurprisingly, falling in the London boroughs.

• There is a 50% discounted levy rate for developments on previously developed sites, provided that at least 75% of the site to which the planning permission relates falls under the “previously developed” definition. Exclusions from this include sites used for agriculture or minerals extraction.

• Local authorities are to be the collection authority and will be able to carry out spot checks on buildings.

Last minute changes

The government recently published draft Building Safety Levy (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026, intended to come into force alongside the Regulations and the levy on October 1, 2026. If you hadn’t spotted these yet, a few points are worth flagging:

• Previously developed sites now seemingly include certain hardstanding areas, such as industrial yards or car parks, potentially bringing more sites within the 50% discount.

• However, in the same breath, the previously developed land discount has been separately narrowed by completely excluding sites with wholly underground buildings and land with unlawful operations.

• One area that has not moved—at least for now, with the government keeping this under review—is the exemption for medium-sized sites. This may mean that smaller developers are forced to reduce the size of their residential projects to limit the levy they are exposed to. 

A timing strategy that’s about to disappear

One point that came up in our building contract work pre-levy was the timing of building control applications. It made sense for some building contracts to support cooperation in submitting building control applications promptly to get in applications before October 1, 2026.

However, once we hit October 1, 2026, that timing consideration falls away; there is no “transitional period” like we have seen for other building safety matters.

Cooperation among the project team is still nonetheless helpful, particularly given the information and evidence required for the calculation of the levy by the authority—that’s worth double checking given its novelty—and the multi-faceted previously developed land discount.

Final thoughts as we near implementation

With the levy close to taking effect, I am sure there will be multiple last minute building control applications, but speed must not outweigh accuracy. Clients will only be exempt from the levy if their pre-October 1, 2026 building control application is validated; any rejected applications will need to be re-submitted, with the levy then applying for re-submissions from October 1, 2026 onwards.

This article is intended as a thought leadership discussion piece and does not constitute legal advice or the viewpoint of Winston Taylor as a firm. If you require assistance, please get in touch with Emma Coates. At Winston Taylor, we are well placed to support clients with any construction matters including those with building safety elements.