2026 is an important year for building safety regulation in England. After several years of transitional measures and post-Grenfell reforms, many regulations are becoming fully enforceable, with interlocking changes determining how residential buildings are designed, constructed, managed, and valued. As the year develops, developers, freeholders, managing agents, and investors will need to navigate new statutory requirements, technical amendments, and financial obligations.
From 1 October 2026, the Building Safety Levy will impose a direct cost on most new residential developments in England, contributing to the estimated £16 billion cost of remediating unsafe buildings nationally. At the same time, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is becoming fully operational as an independent statutory body.
Other reforms reaching key milestones include the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, amendments to Part B of the Building Regulations, and the ongoing fine-tuning of building control policy. The government is also expected to introduce a Remediation Bill to impose a hard deadline for outstanding safety works on higher-risk residential buildings.
We’ve drawn together a guide for development stakeholders on what to expect in 2026, how these changes interact, and how to respond strategically. By understanding the regulatory setting, industry participants can better protect value, manage risk, and ensure buildings are safe and marketable in the new era of building safety compliance.
The Building Safety Levy
The Building Safety Levy is a new tax on most residential buildings, introduced under the Building Safety Act 2022. Unlike planning-linked charges such as CIL or Section 106 contributions, it is tied to building control applications and notices, so it must be paid before work is completed or the building is occupied.
Calculated on a per-square-metre basis of gross internal floorspace, the levy applies to new dwellings, purpose-built student accommodation, and certain changes of use. Rates are weighted by local house prices and are expected to raise over £3 billion over ten years. Exemptions exist for affordable housing, small developments, and units built by non-profit social housing providers, but most market-facing schemes will incur the charge.
The Building Safety Levy will create a direct, non-negotiable cost for most new residential developments, affecting scheme budgets, land bids, and residual values. Developers, investors, and freeholders will need to factor this new levy into their viability assessments, funding structures, and procurement decisions, seeing it as a permanent addition to development costs.
Land Values, Risk Transfer and Viability
With the building safety levy and wider regulatory obligations now in place, safety costs are a core economic consideration for development. Residual land values are being squeezed, and developers need to account for levy payments, remediation exposure, and extended programmes.
Risk transfer schemes, such as conditional contracts or staggered payments, are increasingly being used to allocate safety liabilities and payments to landowners. In strong markets such as London and the Southeast, land pricing will likely grow to reflect safety risk, with deferred payments or conditional agreements becoming more common.
Lenders and equity partners are also adjusting underwriting criteria. Schemes bearing unresolved liabilities, high remediation costs, or marginal residual values face higher premiums, reduced leverage, or funding refusals, whereas early safety planning secures more competitive terms.
The Building Safety Regulator
One central building safety shift in 2026 is the evolution of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) into a fully operational, independent statutory regulator. While it was initially established within the Health and Safety Executive under the Building Safety Act 2022, the BSR has now matured into an independent body with the powers, resources, and statutory remit to oversee design, construction, and post-completion safety in higher-risk residential buildings.
It is now responsible for approving Gateway submissions, ensuring dutyholders meet evidential thresholds before construction can begin or buildings can be occupied. It is also in charge of monitoring and enforcing compliance throughout design and delivery, as well as issuing enforcement notices, stop notices and sanctions where breaches occur. It will oversee the implementation of statutory guidance, including the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, and future models for building control reform.
Developers, designers, and managing agents will need to invest in early professional input and compliant documentation to meet evidential thresholds and prevent delays or sanctions.
Grenfell Tower Inquiry Recommendations
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry remains central to building safety reform, nine years after the tragedy that led to it. Its Phase 1 and 2 reports identified systemic failings in design, regulation, fire safety management, and corporate culture, driving strengthened dutyholder roles, competence requirements, and resident engagement obligations.
The government tracks progress on the Inquiry’s recommendations through statutory annual reports, demonstrating improvements in regulatory competence and ongoing gaps in industry capability. The Inquiry emphasises cultural change, prioritising safety outcomes over cost or speed.
Dutyholder Accountability
The Inquiry found responsibility for safety was commonly fragmented and deflected. In response, the Building Safety Act embeds defined dutyholder roles, such as client, principal designer and principal contractor, with explicit accountability from design through occupation.
Competence as a Regulatory Requirement
A recurring finding in inquiries was the use of inadequately qualified professionals in critical safety roles. This has driven statutory competence expectations, with regulators increasingly requiring evidence aligned to recognised frameworks, including RICS, Engineering Council, and UKAS-accredited schemes, for Gateway submissions and audits.
Resident Engagement and Transparency
The Inquiry highlighted that residents’ safety concerns were repeatedly ignored. Today, higher-risk residential buildings must maintain accessible safety information with clear routes for resident engagement and escalation. Poor communication is now treated as a governance failure, not a soft management issue.
A Shift Toward Safety Outcomes
Grenfell exposed a system focused on minimum compliance rather than real-world safety. Regulators now assess whether proposals are demonstrably safe, rather than simply compliant on paper. This principle is increasingly reflected in BSR decision-making and enforcement.
Auditable Building Safety Information
The absence of accurate, accessible building information was a critical failure at Grenfell. The requirement for a “golden thread”, meaning accurate, up-to-date and digitally accessible information, is now central to Gateway approvals and asset valuation.
The Remediation Bill
The government has signalled its intention to introduce a further Remediation Bill, expected in 2026, to bring unresolved building safety works to a definitive conclusion. While detailed provisions are still awaited, it is clear that the era of open-ended remediation timetables is coming to an end.
The Remediation Bill will impose a hard deadline for outstanding safety works, reducing tolerance for delays and limiting the scope for deferring action through legal or contractual disputes. It is also likely to strengthen the enforcement options available to regulators and local authorities, in addition to existing powers under the Building Safety Act. Many buildings, particularly those between 11 and 18 m, remain partially remediated, and the Bill aims to reduce delays caused by disputed liability or inactive ownership.
Buildings with incomplete remediation may face intensified enforcement actions, restrictions on occupancy, or additional impacts on value and marketability. From a valuation and funding perspective, unresolved remediation is increasingly treated as a regulatory liability rather than a temporary inconvenience.
Evacuation Planning
Amendments to Approved Document B and the Residential Evacuation Plans Regulations embed fire safety into the design, operation, and management of buildings. Developers must coordinate with architects, fire engineers, and building control early to meet requirements for means of escape, compartmentation, and active fire systems.
Operationally, Responsible Persons must maintain Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) and train staff and managing agents to assist vulnerable residents. These obligations surpass completion, affecting staffing, record-keeping, and long-term management viability.
A particularly significant design change taking effect on 30 September 2026 is the requirement for two staircases in residential buildings over 18 metres. This affects mid- to high-rise schemes by reducing net internal area, increasing construction costs, and affecting density and scheme viability. Developers must now factor this requirement into early-stage design and planning, alongside fire safety systems and evacuation planning, to ensure regulatory compliance and programme certainty.
The combined effect of these reforms is to embed fire safety not just in design and construction, but in the ongoing occupation and management of residential buildings, with cost, governance, and liability implications that must be understood early in the development lifecycle.
How These Changes Reshape Appraisal, Funding and Value
Taken together, these upcoming and ongoing changes to the building safety landscape will alter how residential schemes are appraised, funded, and valued in the UK market. Building safety should no longer be treated as a discrete compliance item, but a core financial and risk variable that runs through the entire development lifecycle.
At the appraisal stage, developers and surveyors are increasingly required to model multiple regulatory scenarios, factoring in levy costs, Gateway delays, and higher professional fees. Meanwhile, lenders and institutional investors are increasing their focus on building safety risk. Due diligence now routinely requires a detailed review of Gateway strategies, dutyholder competence, fire safety design and remediation exposure. Assets with outstanding safety issues, incomplete documentation or unclear liability pathways are attracting higher margins, reduced leverage or, in some cases, funding refusal.
Valuation practice is also evolving accordingly. Buildings that are demonstrably compliant, with clear safety cases, completed remediation and secure management arrangements, are increasingly distinguished from those carrying latent regulatory risk. The latter face reduced liquidity, pricing discounts and longer transaction timelines, particularly in higher-risk or investor-led markets.
The Surveyor’s Role in the 2026 Building Safety Landscape
Chartered surveyors now act as risk translators and strategic advisors, helping clients understand the full implications of the 2026 building safety reforms on viability, programme, funding, and long-term asset value. Their role spans across every stage of a development or ownership lifecycle:
Acquisition and appraisal
Surveyors assess levy exposure, remediation obligations, Gateway risks, and two-staircase or Part B requirements. They can also conduct stress testing of building safety assumptions based on net internal area and contingency to produce realistic cost and value projections.
Design and pre-construction
Surveyors can provide and coordinate early professional input, making sure that key players such as architects, fire engineers, and project managers are coordinated under BSR expectations. This can demonstrate to regulators and stakeholders that safety considerations are fully integrated into design and cost planning.
Construction and delivery
Surveyors can monitor compliance throughout the project’s life cycle through approved submissions, track safety-related expenditures, and provide professional assurance that modifications or value engineering do not compromise regulatory standards.
Post-completion and management
Surveyors can support freeholders and managing agents in preparing safety cases, implementing operational fire safety procedures, prioritising remediation works, and keeping accurate, auditable “golden thread” records.
Investment and funding advice
Surveyors can also guide lenders and purchasers on latent safety risks, remediation liabilities, and the impact of regulatory obligations on valuation and liquidity, helping secure finance and reduce exposure.
By providing early, coordinated guidance at each stage, surveyors help ensure developments are compliant, financeable, and commercially resilient, decreasing the risk of costly delays, enforcement action, or diminished asset value in a post-2026 regulatory environment.
Navigating 2026 in Building Safety
As the building safety regime enters a more enforceable phase, the priority for developers, owners, and managing agents must be preparation and proactivity.
This means auditing development pipelines and existing stock to identify exposure to the Building Safety Levy, Gateway risk and outstanding remediation obligations. Design assumptions should be reviewed to ensure schemes progressing through planning or pre-construction remain compliant with emerging regulations.
Budgets and appraisals should be stress-tested against programme duration, professional fees, levy costs, and compliance expenditure, while contractual structures should be revisited to ensure safety risks are clearly allocated and managed. For existing assets, early action on remediation, safety cases and operations can protect value and maintain marketability.
Above all, handling the 2026 building safety landscape will require early, coordinated professional advice. AWH’s building consultancy and surveying teams work with developers, investors, freeholders and managing agents to translate regulations and guidelines into practical, commercially grounded strategies, helping clients remain compliant, manage risk and safeguard long-term asset value.
