Building Safety Levy in England: a developer’s guide

 

The Building Safety Levy has applied in England since 1st October 2026. It is a charge on qualifying residential development, administered through the Building Regulations process and collected by the local authority. It can affect new houses, flats, purpose-built student accommodation and conversions.

There are two questions to answer. Does your building-control submission need levy information? Does the development actually attract a charge? A small scheme or an exempt housing development can need the information even when there is nothing to pay.

The Building Safety Levy is not CIL and is not a planning application fee. Keep it separate from Community Infrastructure Levy, planning fees, building-control charges and any Section 106 agreement in your development appraisal. Paying one does not settle the others.

 

What Building Safety Levy rules are now in force?

 

The Building Safety Levy (England) Regulations 2025 were made on 19th November 2025. Regulation 1 sets commencement at 1st October 2026. Their legal extent is England and Wales, but they apply to England only. A residential building must be wholly situated in England to fall within the definition.

The enabling power is section 105C of the Building Act 1984. Levy receipts help fund building-safety expenditure. The charge is not limited to tall buildings or developers responsible for historic defects.

Current position, checked on 12th October 2026: the Building Safety Levy (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026 were made on 12th September and came into force on 1st October 2026 alongside the 2025 Regulations. They amend the previously developed land test and certain administrative provisions. The official MHCLG guidance was last updated on 2nd July 2026 and anticipates the amendment, but some introductory wording still describes it as a draft. For the law now in force, read the 2025 Regulations together with the enacted 2026 amendments.

For the practical commencement cut-off, including the risk of a rejected pre-October application being caught on resubmission, see our Building Safety Levy starts 1st October news report.

 

Does my development need Building Safety Levy information?

 

For the building-control routes covered by the regulations, the information requirement generally starts with work providing one new dwelling or one new student bedspace. The charging thresholds are higher. This distinction applies to qualifying submissions made on or after 1st October 2026.

Development	Levy information	Levy charge
Extension or improvement to an existing home, with no new dwelling or student bedspace	Not required under the levy rules	No
One to nine new dwellings, genuinely outside a wider major residential development	Required through a covered building-control route	No, because the major residential threshold is not met
Ten or more new dwellings	Required	Potentially, subject to floorspace and exemptions
One to 29 new PBSA bedspaces, outside a wider qualifying development	Required through a covered building-control route	No, because the PBSA threshold is not met
30 or more new PBSA bedspaces	Required	Potentially, subject to the other charging conditions
Development consisting entirely of qualifying social or supported housing	Required, including evidence supporting the exemption	No charge on the qualifying exempt accommodation
A qualifying residential development by an exempt non-profit registered provider	Required, with evidence of the client’s exempt status	No
A building excluded by Schedule 1, such as a qualifying care home, hospital or hotel	Not required under the levy rules	No

Building notices sit outside the levy regime and are considered separately below. For other exempt developments within the information regime, obtain and retain the authority’s notice of no charge. An exemption is not a reason to omit the submission. See MHCLG’s developer guidance.

 

Which development is charged?

 

Regulation 15 requires all the relevant charging conditions to be satisfied:

1. The work creates a new building containing residential floorspace, introduces residential floorspace into an existing building, or increases the residential floorspace of an existing building
2. The work is major residential development, or forms part of a wider major residential development
3. The named client is not an exempt person, or, where there are several named clients, at least one is not exempt

For this levy, major residential development means at least ten dwellings or at least 30 bedspaces in purpose-built student accommodation. Use the levy definition in regulation 6, rather than assuming a planning application described as “major” is automatically chargeable.

Where an existing building already contains dwellings, the dwelling-number test uses the increase before and after the development. The equivalent rule applies to existing student bedspaces. For example, changing an existing building from four flats to twelve provides eight additional dwellings for that test, not twelve.

Exempt dwellings still count towards the ten-dwelling threshold. A development of twelve homes containing eight qualifying social homes and four market homes can therefore attract a charge on the market accommodation and its relevant communal space. The first nine homes are not a free allowance once a scheme meets the threshold.

PBSA means a building, or part of one, designed or adapted principally for people taking full-time further or higher education courses at a qualifying institution. A bedspace is a sleeping area for one person, even where two bedspaces share a room. A student conversion can qualify as PBSA; the rules are not confined to newly erected student blocks.

 

Conversions, Class MA and permitted development

 

A change of use can create chargeable residential floorspace without enlarging the building. Converting an office into twelve private flats introduces residential floorspace and meets the dwelling threshold, so the levy can apply even if every wall remains in the same position.

The same principle applies where planning permission comes from permitted development rights. Class MA and prior approval do not provide a general levy exemption. The planning route and the building-control route answer different questions.

There is, however, a specific rate provision: regulation 20(3)(a) gives chargeable development permitted by the GPDO the lower, previously developed land rate. This is a separate route to that rate; it does not require the development to pass the 75% previously developed site test.

Does the 50% brownfield rate apply to conversions of existing buildings?

Yes, it can. A conversion is not excluded just because the developer is retaining the existing building. But first check whether the project is actually chargeable: the lower brownfield rate is a discount on the levy, not a separate exemption.

• Conversions under permitted development rights: if the residential development has planning permission under the GPDO, including a qualifying Class MA conversion, regulation 20(3)(a) applies the previously developed land rate to chargeable works, without needing the separate 75% site-area test
• Conversions with express planning permission: the lower rate can apply where at least 75% of the land within the relevant planning permission boundary qualifies as previously developed under regulation 21. The existence of a building is not enough on its own if much of the permission area is undeveloped, and the agricultural, forestry and other statutory exclusions still matter

For example, an existing office converted into twelve market flats can be liable to the levy but use the lower rate if it qualifies under either route. A conversion into eight flats, standing alone and outside any wider major residential development, would normally fall below the ten-dwelling charging threshold. An agricultural building converted under an express permission needs particular care because the previously developed land test excludes specified agricultural and forestry land.

You can check the government explanation of both routes in MHCLG’s levy rates and calculations guidance.

For an existing building already containing qualifying residential floorspace, the calculation deducts the relevant existing accommodation and communal floorspace in accordance with regulations 17 to 19. A reconfiguration creating more units without increasing the relevant residential floorspace may produce no charge. Keep measured before-and-after plans, because a conversion from commercial space and a subdivision of existing residential space can have different results.

 

How much is the Building Safety Levy?

 

The calculation for each relevant building is:

(Chargeable accommodation floorspace + chargeable communal floorspace) × the applicable local authority rate

Then add the amounts for the buildings covered by the application. A negative result for a building is treated as nil. The levy uses gross internal area measured in accordance with the RICS Code of Measuring Practice, 6th edition, in square metres rounded to the nearest whole number, with 0.5 rounded upwards.

Communal areas can include lobbies, stairs, plant rooms and residents’ facilities. Where both chargeable and exempt units use an area, apportion it using the floorspace of the units it serves. This can involve units elsewhere in the wider development. An area used wholly or mainly by the general public is excluded from this communal-space definition. A separate building containing no dwellings or PBSA, such as a standalone bin store, is not charged merely because residents use it.

Rates are prescribed nationally for each collecting authority. These are examples from the complete government rate table, expressed in pounds per square metre:

Local authority	Standard rate	Previously developed land rate
County Durham	£12.70	£6.35
Manchester	£28.44	£14.22
Birmingham	£29.23	£14.62
Bexley	£48.00	£24.00
Kensington and Chelsea	£100.35	£50.17

Use the actual scheduled rate, including its pence rounding. Do not calculate a national flat charge per home.

Worked example: ten market houses in Manchester, each with 80m² of chargeable accommodation and no chargeable communal floorspace, give 800m². At £28.44/m², the levy is £22,752. If the development qualifies for the lower rate of £14.22/m², it is £11,376. This illustration assumes the application is within the levy regime and no other exemption applies.

 

When does the previously developed land rate apply?

 

Alongside the separate GPDO route, regulation 21 contains a levy-specific definition of a previously developed site. Do not substitute the NPPF definition or assume that describing a site as brownfield settles the calculation.

Under regulation 21, as amended and in force since 1st October 2026, at least 75% of the land covered by the relevant planning permission must be previously developed immediately before the relevant date. Land can qualify where a building was situated on it on or after 1st July 1948, whether or not that building remains, provided the building was not wholly underground.

The exclusions cover land with a building used for agriculture or forestry, land whose most recent building was used for those purposes, land developed for mineral extraction or landfill waste disposal, and land where operations carried out in, on, over or under it are not lawful within section 191 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. For this levy test, “building” means a permanent building or other permanent man-made structure or erection, including extensions and parts of buildings. The definition includes, but is not limited to, reinforced, paved or otherwise surfaced areas and plant and machinery.

The relevant date is the earlier of the grant of the relevant permission and the start of development authorised by it. Where there is a chain of section 73 permissions, the regulations refer back to the first permission in that chain. Assess the relevant permission area, not just the plots in a particular building-control submission.

For example, if 80% of the permission area qualifies, work on the remaining 20% can still receive the lower rate. If only 60% qualifies, locating a particular block on that 60% does not by itself secure the discount.

2026 amendments in force: SI 2026/1034 confirms that wholly underground buildings do not count. For the 75% calculation, any underground part extending beyond the part of the building above ground is disregarded. These rules took effect on 1st October 2026 under the Building Safety Levy (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026.

 

Social housing and other exemptions

 

The levy has its own exemption definitions. A planning label such as affordable housing is not enough by itself. Check the actual tenure, provider, rent and legal arrangements against Schedule 2.

Exemption	What to check
Qualifying rented social housing	The prescribed landlord, tenancy and rent conditions; relevant routes include regulated rents or rents capped at 80% of market rent including service charges
Shared ownership	The prescribed arrangements, initial share of no more than 75%, rent of no more than 3% of the unsold interest and the regulated rent-increase limits
Discounted rent from another provider	The tenant’s needs, the 80% rent limit including service charges, and a planning obligation securing the conditions
Discounted sale housing	A first sale at no more than 70% of market value, with a planning obligation entered into before that sale securing the same limit on later sales
Supported housing	The prescribed provider and care, support or supervision requirements
Exempt person	A non-profit registered provider of social housing or its qualifying wholly owned subsidiary; all named clients must qualify where there is more than one

Qualifying social housing built by a private developer can be exempt. An exempt non-profit registered provider can also develop market housing without a levy charge because the exemption attaches to the client. A joint venture is not automatically exempt merely because a housing association participates.

Exempt building categories in Schedule 1 include school accommodation, care homes, secure residential institutions, hospitals, domestic-abuse accommodation, children’s homes and specified children’s accommodation, hotels and hostels, religious residential establishments, almshouses and qualifying temporary homeless accommodation. The schedule’s definitions and primary-use test matter. Exempt accommodation within a mixed building is addressed separately by Schedule 2.

MHCLG guidance also identifies armed-forces accommodation and Ministry of Defence or Crown properties as excluded. Check the actual status and delivery arrangements; a private residential redevelopment does not acquire an exemption merely because the land was formerly used by the Ministry of Defence.

Evidence may include the permission, a Section 106 obligation, a relevant undertaking, a contract with the intended provider and provider registration details. Exemption evidence is normally supplied at commencement. If it becomes available later, the levy-update procedure may allow the assessment to be revised before completion. Keep the collecting authority informed if the intended use or provider changes.

 

What information should be submitted, and when?

 

Prepare the levy evidence alongside the building-control submission. The government’s application and commencement annexes provide useful standard formats, but the statutory information requirements are what must be satisfied.

With the application or initial notice:

• The number of dwellings and PBSA bedspaces the works will provide
• The planning permission, planning application or prior-approval position, with identifying details where available
• Whether the works are, or are expected to be, major residential development or part of a wider major residential development
• The relevant collecting authority information for the regulator route
• For an initial notice submitted on the client’s behalf, the client’s signed confirmation that the levy information is accurate

With the first commencement notice:

• Confirmation of the applicable planning and prior-approval position
• Whether the charging conditions are met, with reasons and evidence if they are not
• Exempt dwelling numbers and the evidence supporting those exemptions
• Measured accommodation and communal floorspace, including any relevant existing floorspace
• The basis for the standard or lower rate, with supporting site and planning evidence

The first commencement submission must cover all the works in the relevant building-control application or initial notice, even if only part has commenced. Subsequent commencement notices can identify information already supplied. A levy commencement notice is part of the building-control procedure; do not confuse it with a CIL commencement notice.

A missing-information application can be rejected. A local authority must reject an initial notice that lacks the required levy information. Omitting the later evidence can also prevent the authority from determining whether anything is payable, creating a completion-certificate problem even on a scheme that should be exempt.

 

The building-control route affects the process

 

Route	Information and assessment	Completion
Local authority full plans	Initial information with the application; charging evidence with the first commencement notice; determination normally within five weeks, or eight weeks if selected for a spot check	Provide the levy liability statement; the authority cannot issue the relevant completion certificate with an outstanding charge
Registered Building Control Approver and initial notice	Levy annex with the initial notice; send the first commencement notice and evidence to the collecting authority within two working days of sending it to the approver; normal determination period of five or eight weeks	The client confirms payment or a current notice of no charge; the local authority must reject the final certificate if the required levy conditions are not met
Building Safety Regulator, including higher-risk building applications	Information accompanies the regulator application, including staged applications where relevant; send supporting commencement evidence directly to the collecting authority at the same time as the regulator submission	Where a charge is due, payment is required; completion or partial completion also needs the applicable collecting-authority confirmation, including a notice of no charge where appropriate
Building notice	Outside the levy regime, but only available where existing building-control law permits that route	Ordinary Building Regulations requirements still apply

For the regulator route, government guidance allows seven weeks from submission of the commencement information, or ten weeks where a spot check occurs, reflecting transmission to the collecting authority. Requests for further information and agreed extensions can lengthen these periods. Do not treat the normal periods as a guaranteed programme.

The local authority collects the levy whichever covered building-control route is used. The approver or Building Safety Regulator does not become the collecting authority. Where a building crosses local-authority boundaries, the authority containing the greater part of the building collects for that building.

 

When must the Building Safety Levy be paid?

 

The charge becomes payable when a levy liability notice, or revised liability notice, is given. It is not an upfront payment required with the building-control application.

Regulation 24 sets the deadline at the earlier of the applicable completion-notification date and first occupation. The relevant completion event varies by route: a completion notice under full plans, the completion compliance declaration to an approver, or an application for a completion or partial completion certificate to the regulator.

If one application covers several buildings or parts, the first relevant occupation or completion event matters. A continuously occupied existing part is disregarded for the occupation test. Do not assume payment can wait until the final building in the application is finished.

The whole levy for the building-control application or initial notice must be settled before a completion certificate or final-certificate acceptance for any of its works. The collecting authority issues a levy payment certificate within two weeks of full payment. Retain it with the project records.

Non-payment can therefore block completion certification, affect handover and disrupt a sale or occupation programme. Exempt schemes within the information regime still need the appropriate notice of no charge. Paying the levy does not remove any other building-safety or building-control requirement.

 

Phasing needs attention before the first handover

 

The small-development threshold considers the wider development authorised by the relevant planning permission. Seven houses in a building-control submission can be chargeable where they form part of a permission for 50 houses. Using several clients or several submissions does not itself turn a major development into exempt small schemes.

For phased projects, identify the permission or permissions covering the relevant phase and how that phase relates to the wider development. The planning permission also matters to the previously developed site calculation.

The scope of each building-control application then affects payment timing. If the application covers a whole estate, certification of the first completed homes can require payment for all chargeable works in that application. Agree the submission and handover strategy with the building-control team and reflect the resulting payment dates in cash flow.

 

Do applications submitted before 1st October 2026 remain protected?

 

The transitional protection is tied to the building-control application, not the date of planning permission. Regulation 5 explains when each type of application is made. A submission must follow the correct statutory route; an incomplete holding submission is not a dependable basis for transition.

Situation	Levy treatment
Full plans application properly made before 1st October 2026	Outside the 2025 levy regulations; approval does not also have to be obtained by 30th September
Initial notice properly given to the local authority before 1st October 2026	Outside the levy regulations
Higher-risk building application properly submitted to the regulator before 1st October 2026	Outside the levy regulations
Later qualifying variation or commencement notice relating to a protected pre-October original	Expressly protected by regulation 1(6)
Application made before October, rejected, then resubmitted on or after 1st October 2026	The resubmitted application falls within the levy regime, subject to the charging conditions and exemptions
Planning permission obtained before October, but a new building-control application made on or after 1st October 2026	The earlier planning permission does not by itself provide transition
A fresh post-October building-control application for additional works or a later stage	Assess that application separately; an earlier application elsewhere on the project is not automatic protection

A qualifying variation has a defined meaning under regulation 41. It includes a relevant further full plans application for the same buildings, an amendment notice and an HRB change-control application. Do not assume that every later submission is a protected variation because the developer describes it as an amendment. Keep the original submission, receipt record and the link between the original and later documents.

 

What is happening with building notices?

 

Building notices are outside the defined applications and notices to which the levy applies. This is the current statutory structure, rather than a general exemption for the residential development itself.

Existing building regulations already require full plans in important situations, including work to a building to which the Fire Safety Order applies or will apply, erection of a building fronting onto a private street, and work engaging requirement H4 on building over sewers.

In its letter of 10th September 2026, MHCLG reminded authorities to check the site plan and the private-street position when assessing building notices for new dwellings. Many new homes front a private street when the application is made. A building notice is not an available levy-saving choice where full plans are legally required.

The government has consulted on requiring full plans for all new dwellings using the local-authority route. Its letter of 10th September 2026 says a response will set out the timetable for any changes. The letter itself did not introduce that proposed wider restriction. Check the current Building Regulations for the particular work before relying on a building notice; it is not an alternative where a full plans application is legally required.

 

Changes, refunds, reviews and appeals

 

Changes to the works, tenure or client can alter the levy assessment. A further full plans application, amendment notice or HRB change-control application may require updated levy information. Certain changes that do not require one of those applications can be addressed through a levy update notice. Keep the calculation aligned with the scheme actually being delivered.

Regulation 65 provides refunds where a revised assessment, variation, review or appeal reduces a charge already paid. The normal refund period is two weeks from the relevant revised notice or, if later, receipt of the nominated bank details. The refund must exceed the authority’s reasonable costs of making it.

Regulations 66 and 67 address further situations, including specified lapses affecting part of the works, cancellation of initial notices, uncertificated works and changes in the building-control authority. These require the relevant statutory conditions and supporting documents. A project delay or a decision to change approver is not, by itself, a guarantee of a full refund. Government guidance states that refunds do not attract interest.

If the liability decision, amount or refund decision appears wrong, the named client can request a written review from the collecting authority within 28 days beginning with the day the decision is given. Identify the application, notice, reasons and evidence. The review must be undertaken by someone senior to the original decision-maker who was not involved in that decision, and the authority has 28 days to notify its decision.

A further appeal lies to the First-tier Tribunal for an error of fact or law, including where the authority fails to issue its review decision in time. The appeal period is 28 days beginning with the day after notification of the review decision, or the day after the review decision deadline expires. Challenges to rejection of a building-control application follow separate building-control appeal procedures.

 

A practical Building Safety Levy checklist

 

1. Identify the correct building-control route and establish whether the application benefits from transition
2. Check the whole development against the ten-dwelling or 30-bedspace test
3. Separate chargeable, exempt and existing floorspace, including communal areas
4. Confirm the collecting authority and the actual scheduled rate
5. Assemble the permission, prior-approval, tenure and site-history evidence supporting your assessment
6. Allocate responsibility for the application-stage and commencement-stage information
7. Allow for assessment, any spot check, payment confirmation and the first handover deadline in the programme
8. Update the assessment when the scheme changes and retain the liability, no-charge and payment records

Planning Geek can help you establish the planning route, understand the permission and its phases, and organise the planning evidence relevant to a levy assessment. Building-control compliance, measurement and specialist legal or tax issues may need input from the appropriate professional. Contact Planning Geek to discuss the planning side of your project.

 

Building Safety Levy legislation and official forms

 

Check the official regulations and their Changes to Legislation information for amendments and outstanding changes. The locally hosted 2025 Regulations PDF preserves the version checked for this page; the 2026 amendments are now enacted as SI 2026/1034.

This guidance is based on the Building Act 1984, the 2025 levy regulations, the separately identified 2026 amendment regulations, MHCLG’s levy guidance and the letter of 10th September 2026.

Useful official forms: Building Safety Levy information at application stage and Building Safety Levy charging information at commencement stage.

 

Building Safety Levy Page Updated: 12th October 2026