No impact assessment on levy affordable housing effect – MHCLG

There has been no impact assessment on the effect of the Building Safety Levy on affordable housing through section 106 contributions, a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee session has revealed.

When pressed by committee member Clive Betts on whether such an assessment had been undertaken, Sarah Healey, MHCLG’s permanent secretary, said she believed it had not.

Speaking at a Public Accounts Committee oral session on local government financial stability, Healey replied: “I do not believe specifically on the question that you asked. Ultimately, we take a range of decisions. It is a dynamic situation."

When first asked the question - with Betts pointing out that the levy would make less money available for section 106 funding – Healey said there was “a whole range of issues [that] affect how much affordable housing is built. Developers will take all those issues into account when pressing ahead and making their plans. There are lots of moving parts”.

Betts questioned whether the “dynamic situation” that Healey described prevented impact assessments from being completed. To this, Healey replied: “No.”

But Healey also informed Betts that the delay to the levy, now expected in autumn 2026, would “not slow down the …