UK New-Build Rules in 2026: Safety Levy, Staircases and the New EPC

On 30 September and 1 October 2026, new residential buildings in England will cross three significant regulatory thresholds in succession: the second-staircase requirement for new residential buildings over 18 metres, the Building Safety Levy, and the new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), targeted for launch in October 2026.

These three changes are often discussed in terms of “will house prices go up” or “should I buy now,” but what they actually affect, in the first instance, is development cost, building design, sellable floor area and the compliance cost of future rental homes — not a buyer’s purchasing deadline. For a buyer comparing UK new-build flats, the more practical question is: which side of the regulatory dividing line does the project you’re looking at actually fall on?

The Three Thresholds in One Minute

Threshold One: The Building Safety Levy

The Building Safety Levy is a one-off charge on new residential buildings in England, due to take effect on 1 October 2026. It is calculated per square metre of residential floor area, with different rates set by each local authority area. The “client” named on the building control application — usually the developer — is responsible for paying the local council, and it must be paid in full before the project completes, or a completion certificate cannot be obtained.

The easiest thing to overlook when understanding this levy is the difference between the “standard rate” and the “brownfield rate.” Each authority area sets two rates; if a site qualifies as previously developed land (commonly called brownfield), the applicable rate can be halved.

There are 298 charging authorities nationwide, with the highest and lowest rates differing by roughly 7.7 times. Many flat developments in central Manchester and Salford are built on former factory, warehouse or car-park sites, so they may qualify for the brownfield rate. That said, you cannot assume a project qualifies just because it sits in a city centre — the developer still has to confirm whether the land meets the official criteria.

Under the official definition, the relevant land generally must have had a building on it after 1 July 1948, and at least 75% of the land within the project’s red-line boundary must meet this condition. Underground structures, agricultural and forestry buildings, mining sites and unlawful buildings are not necessarily included in the recognized scope. So when someone estimates a project’s cost using the standard rate, the first question to ask is not the result of the calculation, but which rate band the project actually falls under.

Some projects can be exempt or excluded from the charge altogether, including developments of fewer than 10 homes, student accommodation with fewer than 30 beds, and some social rent, intermediate rent, shared ownership, First Homes, supported housing and non-profit social housing. Hospitals, care homes, school dormitories, hotels and religious buildings may also fall outside the general residential charging scope.

The transitional rule for the Building Safety Levy is relatively straightforward. A project whose building control application was submitted before 1 October 2026 is, in principle, not subject to this levy; a later amendment to the same application does not automatically remove that exemption. In other words, this rule mainly looks at when the application was submitted, not whether construction has already started.

**Key point:** when assessing the Building Safety Levy, first check the application date, then check the nature of the land. The first determines whether the project falls within the charging scope at all; the second affects the rate that actually applies.

Threshold Two: The Second-Staircase Requirement for Buildings Over 18 Metres

From 30 September 2026, new residential buildings with a top floor over 18 metres must have a second staircase. The height threshold proposed in early consultation was 30 metres, later lowered to 18 metres to align with the height threshold for “higher-risk buildings” in the UK.

Adding a second staircase is not simply a matter of building an extra flight of steps. It can also change a building’s core, corridors, unit layout and overall floor plan, and may reduce the amount of sellable floor space. The government’s impact assessment estimates additional capital cost for a representative building at roughly £500,000 to £2.3 million, with the value of lost sellable floor area estimated at roughly £583,500 to £2.073 million. Analysis by the Centre for Cities suggests the two-staircase requirement could add roughly £22,500 per flat. These figures are research-body model estimates, though, and do not mean every project will see exactly the same outcome.

The transitional rule for the second-staircase requirement adds one more condition than the Building Safety Levy: a construction progress requirement. To rely on the old rule, a project must both submit its building control application or relevant notice before 30 September 2026, and reach the officially defined “substantially progressed” stage by 30 March 2028.

For a new building, “substantially progressed” generally means that trench, raft or pad foundations have started to be poured, or permanent piling has begun. So a developer cannot simply rely on submitting an application before the deadline to keep the old rules — they must also progress the project to the corresponding foundation stage within the specified time.

• The Building Safety Levy mainly looks at the building control application date.
• The second-staircase requirement looks at both the application date and whether construction has “substantially progressed” in time.
• Submitting an application alone, without starting the specified foundation work in time, may not be enough to keep the single-staircase design.

The official documents mainly target new-build tall residential buildings. Whether the same rules apply to certain change-of-use or conversion projects still needs to be confirmed case by case against the latest official guidance. In addition, the new second-staircase requirement uses 18 metres as the threshold; some buildings below 18 metres may be subject to other existing fire safety and escape rules, but that does not mean the 2026 two-staircase rule extends fully down to buildings below 18 metres.

**Key point:** the Building Safety Levy can be judged “by application date alone,” but the second staircase cannot. When deciding whether a tall building project can keep the old rules, both the application date and construction progress matter.

Threshold Three: The New EPC and the 2030 Rental Standard

The UK government’s current position is that it is working toward launching the new EPC starting in October 2026. This is a policy delivery target, not a fixed statutory effective date already written into law — so describing it as “fully mandatory from October 2026” is not accurate.

The current residential EPC is centred mainly on energy cost; the new system is expected to move to four main indicators, including energy cost, building fabric performance, heating system and smart-readiness. The underlying assessment method is also expected to move from SAP/RdSAP to the Home Energy Model, while a residential EPC’s validity period will remain 10 years.

For a landlord, the date worth watching more closely is 1 October 2030. Under the current policy direction, privately rented homes must reach a standard equivalent to EPC C by that date. The earlier phased plan of “dealing with new tenancies first from 2028” has been dropped, replaced by a single date covering all tenancies at once. This reflects the government’s confirmed Warm Homes Plan policy response (published January 2026); the amending regulations that will actually put it into law are still going through Parliament, targeted to come into force in 2027, so the 2030 compliance date itself is not yet fixed in legislation.

The related policy currently includes a general improvement cost cap of £10,000. If the property is valued below £100,000, the cap is £10,000 or 10% of the property’s value, whichever is lower. The government’s impact assessment estimates an average improvement cost for landlords of roughly £5,400; the penalty cap is £30,000 per property per breach.

There is also a transitional arrangement: an old-style EPC C or above obtained before 1 October 2029 can still be treated as compliant for the remainder of its validity period. This means that when judging whether a rented home needs improvement before 2030, you cannot look only at the current EPC rating — you also need to consider the certificate’s issue date, its validity period, and the assessment system that will be in use by then.

Official statistics for the first quarter of 2026 show that 87% of new-build homes in England were rated A or B, with 67% rated B; for existing homes, 88% fell into bands C or D, with only 12% reaching A or B. The official data does not, however, break this down separately for flats, so you cannot directly conclude that all new-build flats are more energy-efficient than existing flats, and still less can you apply an overall statistical difference directly to an individual project.

**Key point:** the October 2026 date for the new EPC is currently a policy target; the 1 October 2030 rental energy-efficiency requirement is the hard deadline landlords need to build into their holding-cost assessment.

Will These Three Thresholds Push Prices Up?

All three regimes could raise development or holding costs, but “cost going up” does not equal “price definitely going up.” New costs can be absorbed in different places — developer profit, land price, affordable-housing and Section 106 contributions, unit design, sellable floor area, project phasing, or the final sale price.

The view of the Home Builders Federation (HBF) is that some cost may be pushed upstream — for example through renegotiating land price, the affordable-housing ratio or other planning contributions — but there is a limit to how far land prices can fall. There is currently no reliable public quantitative study that can say precisely how much of any new cost ends up being borne by buyers, developers, landowners or other parties.

Similarly, the number of new-start and under-construction homes in Manchester has fallen in recent years, but existing industry commentary tends to attribute the delay mainly to the pace of Gateway 2 approvals from the Building Safety Regulator, and there is not yet research proving that this change was caused directly by the Building Safety Levy or the second-staircase requirement. These three regimes may affect future project viability and the pace of supply, but the more accurate way to put it for now is “worth watching,” not “an established causal relationship.”

What Actually Matters for Buyers?

The biggest effect of these three thresholds is to split projects on the market into different cost generations. A project further along in construction, having submitted its building control application earlier, may be able to keep the older cost and design conditions; a project reporting later may need to absorb the Building Safety Levy, a two-staircase design, or the new energy-assessment requirements.

This doesn’t mean an older project is necessarily cheaper, or a newer one necessarily better, and it doesn’t support a conclusion that “buying now is better value than buying later.” It simply means that, when comparing two projects, you cannot look only at price, unit layout and show-flat renderings — you also need to confirm whether both are sitting on the same regulatory and cost basis.

Common Misunderstandings

Misunderstanding One: “A flat in Manchester has to pay a £28.44/sq m safety levy.”

Many city-centre flat developments are built on brownfield land and may qualify for the halved rate of £14.22/sq m. Before doing any calculation, you should still confirm the nature of the site with the project directly, rather than assuming the standard rate applies.

Misunderstanding Two: “The new EPC becomes mandatory from October 2026.”

October 2026 is the government’s policy delivery target, not a statutory effective date. The real hard deadline is the rental-homes compliance line of 1 October 2030.

Misunderstanding Three: “Buildings under 18 metres also need a second staircase.”

This is not the case. Buildings under 18 metres may still be subject to existing fire safety and single-staircase escape rules, but that is not the same as the 2026 second-staircase requirement for buildings over 18 metres.

Misunderstanding Four: “Costs are rising, so prices are bound to rise.”

There is currently no reliable public quantification of who ultimately bears any new cost — whether it is absorbed through lower land prices, renegotiated planning contributions, or passed through to the sale price. Under-construction volume in Manchester fell below 10,000 homes in 2025 for the first time in a decade, but industry feedback points to the bottleneck in Gateway 2 approvals from the Building Safety Regulator, without naming these three new regimes specifically. Any conclusion that skips over cost allocation and other supply factors to jump straight to “prices must rise” is worth checking further.

FAQ on the UK New-Build October Thresholds

Q1: The project I’m looking at is already under construction — will it still be affected by these three changes?
Generally, a project already under construction will mostly have submitted its building control application before the thresholds took effect, so the Building Safety Levy and the new second-staircase requirement may not apply. But this needs to be verified project by project against the actual application date, especially for a phased development — it’s worth asking the project directly whether later phases rely on the same original application.

Q2: Will these three new rules push UK house prices up?
Rising cost does not equal rising price. There is currently no reliable public quantification of whether this cost is borne by the developer, the land price or the buyer; the impact on the pace of supply is also still to be seen. Based on current information, all that can be confirmed is that projects on either side of the regulatory line have a different cost basis, so they should be compared separately.

Q3: If I plan to rent the property out, which date matters most?
The one to remember is 1 October 2030. Under the current policy direction, all tenancies will need to meet a standard equivalent to EPC C by that date, with no “new tenancies first” grace period. The general improvement cost cap is £10,000, and the penalty cap is £30,000 per property per breach. For any property intended for rental, it’s worth confirming the expected EPC rating at handover first.

Seven Questions to Verify With the Project

1. On what date was the project’s building control application, or initial notice, submitted?
2. Was the application submitted before or after 1 October 2026?
3. Does the project’s land meet the definition of previously developed land? Does the standard rate or the brownfield rate apply?
4. If the building is over 18 metres, was the application submitted before 30 September 2026? When is the foundation or permanent piling expected to start?
5. Will later phases rely on the same building control application, or will a separate one be submitted?
6. What EPC rating is expected at handover? Under the current system, or the new four-indicator system?
7. Are the Building Safety Levy, second-staircase and energy-compliance costs already reflected in the current quote and design?

These questions cannot replace the buying decision itself, but they can shift the conversation from “how good is this project” to “which of this project’s conditions can actually be verified.” The quality of information you get back from these two kinds of questions is usually very different.

Zagdim’s Summary

The changes at the end of September into early October 2026 are not a countdown for buyers — they are a regulatory dividing line for development projects. The Building Safety Levy mainly looks at the application date; the second-staircase requirement looks at both application date and construction progress; the October 2026 date for the new EPC is still a policy target; and the real hard deadline for rental homes to note is 1 October 2030.

Buyers don’t need to turn these rules into a simple “buy now” or “wait” answer. A more effective approach is to first verify a project’s application timing, land nature, building height, construction progress and expected energy standard, and then judge whether the various costs are already reflected in the design and the quote.

*This article is for general information only and does not constitute investment, legal, tax, building-regulation or financial advice. The relevant regimes, rates and timetables may change; the applicable position should be confirmed against current UK regulations, the latest official guidance, information from the project itself, and independent professional advice.*

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