Building Safety Levy for England
The levy, which is designed to contribute to the cost of remediation of unsafe buildings, will be charged on qualifying residential developments in England including certain new build developments, conversions and changes of use. It aims to collect £3.4 billion from UK home builders for building safety-related purposes. It will be charged before completion of building work and occupation of buildings and will be collected by local authorities.
Developments delivering at least 10 additional dwellings (or 30 additional purpose-built student accommodation bedspaces) will generally be liable to pay the levy (subject to exemptions and transitional provisions), which is calculated based on net additional chargeable floorspace, on a per-building basis. Chargeable floorspace is the relevant floorspace created within ordinary residential dwellings and purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), as well as a share of the floorspace in any communal area, proportionate to the relative floorspace of chargeable and non-chargeable accommodation.
For example, if a new development consisted of a single building of 20 identical flats, of which 16 were ordinary residential flats and 4 were qualifying social rent flats, with a shared hallway, the development would be in scope for the Levy, and the chargeable floorspace would be the total floorspace of the 16 ordinary residential flats, plus 80% (i.e., 16/20) of the floorspace of the hallway.
To support CIAT members and affiliates in calculating Levy liabilities, CIAT is developing a Building Safety Levy estimator tool, which we hope to make available shortly.
While the estimator tool remains in development, further information on the Levy, calculation methodologies and rates can be found using the following links to official guidance and legislation:
Any questions or feedback regarding the Levy should be directed to [email protected].
