The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)

My Lords, these regulations were laid before the House on 10 July 2025. The Government are committed to the remediation of residential buildings with unsafe cladding in England. Our remediation acceleration plan sets out how we will remove barriers so that buildings are fixed faster. Crucially, this will allow residents to be and feel safe in their homes. The Government have already committed £5.1 billion of taxpayers’ money to the cost of remediation. We want to protect leaseholders and residents from further costs that are not of their making. The building safety levy is an essential step in achieving this. The purpose of the levy is to fund the Government’s building safety remediation programme. We estimate that we need to raise around £3.4 billion over 10 years. The draft regulations enable the levy to be imposed. The levy will be charged on certain building control applications for new residential floorspace in England. Subject to the approval of the Committee, it will start being charged from 1 October 2026. Local authorities will collect the levy on behalf of central government. They are well placed to carry out this role as custodians of local building control, with tax collection expertise. I thank local authorities for the vital role they will play and for the steps they are already taking to prepare. My officials are supporting local authorities to ensure that they are ready for the levy launch. We will provide collecting authorities with grant funding for set-up costs. All ongoing costs will be recoverable from the levy revenue received. The levy provides essential funding to deliver a safe built environment that meets residents’ needs. It complements our broader housing goals, including the delivery of 1.5 million high-quality homes over this Parliament. The levy is designed to minimise detrimental impact on housing supply while securing the required revenue. To achieve this, there are different levy rates for each local authority, which reflect local house prices. This protects viability in areas where house prices are lower. The differential rates are set out in the instrument. Development on previously developed land will benefit from a 50% discount rate. This discount compensates for the often higher cost of developing this type of land, ensuring that more sites remain viable. The Government are committed to getting Britain building again. Small and medium-sized builders play a crucial role in driving up housebuilding rates but have faced significant challenges in recent years. In fact, just before I came here, I had a very interesting meeting with a round table of SME builders, so I know the immediate challenges they are facing. We are therefore helping SME developers by exempting developments of fewer than 10 dwellings from the levy charge. Earlier this year, we announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation. The building of more good-quality, affordable housing must be accelerated. With this in mind, all affordable housing is exempt from the levy charge. However, we have gone further, and any housing built by a non-profit registered provider of social housing is also exempt. Profits from sales of such homes are often reinvested into the provision of further much-needed affordable housing. Supported housing and other types of important community facilities, such as hospices and care homes, are also exempt from the charge. We will keep the rates and processes under review and will report at least every three years. With that, I beg to move.