The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has today (Monday 24 March) announced, in its technical consultation response, the implementation timeline for the Building Safety Levy has been pushed back from Autumn 2025 to Autumn 2026.

In response, Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the Home Builders Federation said;

“The delay to the implementation of this new tax on home building is welcome recognition from government that these additional costs will inevitably constrain housing supply, but the news that ministers will still press ahead with this grossly unfair levy rather than obtaining contributions from powerful product manufacturers is a disappointment."

Jefferson continues: “As proposed it will add thousands of pounds to the cost of new homes, threatening the viability of sites across swathes of the country at a time when industry is striving to reverse the decline in home building numbers that we have seen in recent years."

Jefferson concludes: “UK house builders are already paying over £6bn to remediate all their own buildings as well as those build by other parties through the pre-existing building safety tax. Surely the companies that tested and supplied the dangerous materials, still yet to contribute a penny, should be targeted before Government imposes yet another tax on British businesses, many of whom have never built anything taller than a typical family house."