Scottish Building Safety Levy: indicative rates
Indicative rates for the Scottish Building Safety Levy, including the methodology used to calculate rates and an assessment of expected impacts ahead of the Levy’s introduction in April 2028.
Footnotes
1 No rates are provided for Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland as units constructed on these island authority areas are exempt.
2 i.e. excluding units which are exempt. The Levy comprises around 0.4% of the value of the entire new build market (i.e. including units which benefit from exemptions).
3 House price statistics - Registers of Scotland
4 Areas classified as remote small towns or remote rural on the Scottish Government’s 6-fold urban-rural classification scheme.
5 See dataset “New house building - All sectors starts and completions” at Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot
6 The reason that the calculation is based on total completions less new build funded from the AHSP is that the private:social distinction used in the new build tables is based on who the lead developer is rather than whether the unit receives funding from the AHSP.
7 See dataset “Affordable Housing Supply Programme Summary Tables” at Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot. Note that AHSP units which are not new build are excluded from this figure since the Levy only applies to new residential completions.
8 Since AHSP-funded completions in island areas has already been deducted in the step above.
9 There will also be some new build in island areas of non-island local authorities, which is not separately identifiable in the dataset. However, Registers of Scotland data on new build sales indicates that this is likely to be very small.
10 Housing statistics: Conversions and demolitions - gov.scot
11 Only developments marked as “existing” were included. There were a few instances of developments where the build or refurbishment year was marked as 2025 or earlier, but where the build status was marked as “proposed” or “under construction”; these were excluded.
12 House price statistics - Registers of Scotland
13 Housing Land Audits are published by all authorities; the 18 local authorities included in this dataset comprise those where the relevant data on greenfield:brownfield shares was readily downloadable. See Housing Land Audit: guidance - gov.scot for information on the Housing Land Audit process.
14 This could be because of delays in obtaining postcodes for new developments, or possibly where there has been a data entry error.