SME house builders warn Building Safety Levy threatens site viability

Research from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Quantum Development Finance indicates that 91% of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) house builders believe the upcoming Building Safety Levy will make residential developments financially unviable.

Scheduled to take effect on October 1, the levy is expected to impact investment decisions across England. Approximately 36% of builders report they have already delayed, redesigned, or cancelled housing schemes in anticipation of the charge. The impact appears most significant in London, where 86.7% of respondents expressed concerns regarding new investments, followed by the West Midlands and the South West.

HBF CEO Neil Jefferson has called on the government to pause the levy's introduction to assess its necessity. He noted that the industry is already contributing to the remediation of historic building safety issues and pointed out that approximately £2.5bn of the existing £5.1bn Building Safety Fund remains unassigned.