RenovationNotes

References

Costs & Pricing

126 sources in the library on costs & pricing. Each one says what the document covers and what it is good for. Name a source to see which document it is and where to read it. One at a time. Page 3 of 4.

  1. very strong RN-05J0NJ

    Ofgem

    The unit rates that any running-cost or payback calculation must be built on, published by the regulator that sets them. For the cap period 1 October to 31 December 2026, on a direct debit tariff in England, Scotland and Wales: electricity 26.32 pence per kWh with a standing charge of 54.83 pence per day, and gas 7.97 pence per kWh with a standing charge of 29.68 pence per day. The headline cap figure for the period is £1,723 a year for a typical household, a 4% increase on the previous quarter. Two cautions when citing: the cap limits unit rates and standing charges, not the total bill, so the £1,723 is an illustration for typical consumption rather than a maximum; and the rates vary by region and by payment method, with prepayment and standard credit differing from direct debit. Rates change every quarter, so any payback figure quoted without the cap period attached will go stale within three months.

  2. very strong RN-6BGBFC

    Scottish Government (gov.scot)

    SCOTLAND, and this is where an England-based note goes wrong. A completion certificate confirms the building was constructed, demolished or converted in accordance with the warrant and the building regulations, and it is submitted by the relevant person, usually the owner or developer, not issued unprompted by the authority. It is an offence to submit a completion certificate known to be false, and an offence to occupy a new building, a conversion or an extension unless the completion certificate has been ACCEPTED by the verifier. Temporary occupation or use can be permitted under section 21 of the Act on application to the verifier, who takes account of mitigation such as means of escape in a partially completed building. The occupation bar does not apply to alterations, but a completion certificate for alterations must still be submitted before the warrant expires. Where an approved certifier of construction is involved, the relevant person must still certify completion. Section 9 notes that a local authority may operate a letter of comfort scheme for older unauthorised works, Scotland's practical counterpart to England's regularisation certificate.

  3. very strong RN-LR1JGD

    Scottish Government (gov.scot)

    SCOTLAND. Published 25 March 2026, ISBN 9781806439690, in force from 1 April 2026, and it carries the revised table of fees applicable to all building warrant applications, so it is the correct source for what a Scottish building warrant costs. It explains the procedures underpinning the Scottish building standards system as set out in the Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the Building (Scotland) Act 2003. Scotland charges a building warrant fee scaled to the estimated value of the work, a structure with no direct England parallel now that England's building control charges are set locally by each authority or by a private registered building control approver.

  4. very strong RN-49EIVV

    Scottish Government (gov.scot)

    The Scottish planning fee schedule set by Planning Circular 1/2026, published 25 March 2026, applying the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2026. Householder work (categories 2 and 3), meaning applications to enlarge, improve or alter an existing dwellinghouse or to carry out ancillary works within its curtilage, carries a flat fee of £371, rising to a maximum of £742 where more than one dwelling is involved. New dwellinghouses (category 1) are charged in bands: £742 per dwelling for each of the first 10, £557 per dwelling for the 11th to 49th, and £310 per dwelling above 49, subject to an overall maximum of £185,524. Category 20, change of use of a building to one or more separate dwellinghouses, is priced identically to new build with the same cap. Scottish fees are uprated annually for inflation, so check the year of the circular before quoting.

  5. very strong RN-VR0Q0L

    Scottish Government (gov.scot)

    SCOTLAND, and this contradicts the England position outright. New-style Scottish EPCs are introduced from 30 April 2028 under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025, replacing the 2008 regulations. Domestic EPCs will show separate ratings for heat retention, heating system and energy costs, non-domestic ones for energy performance, energy use and direct emissions, and certificates will be valid for 5 years rather than 10, so the familiar ten-year EPC validity will not hold in Scotland. Between 30 April 2028 and 30 April 2029 a sale or let may use either an old-style EPC and recommendations report or a new-style EPC and property report, but a property sold or let a second time inside that window must have the new-style pair; from 30 April 2029 only new-style certificates are valid. Assessors can issue only new-style EPCs from 30 April 2028. The same one-year grace period applies to Scotland's roughly 30,000 short-term lets. Dates remain subject to Scottish Parliament approval.

  6. very strong RN-TVXPNF

    Scottish Government Building Standards Division (blogs.gov.scot)

    The Scottish building warrant fee uplift from 1 April 2026 under the Building (Fees) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2026, the final year of the three-year fee model that began on 1 April 2024. Average increase around 8%. Named figures: the lowest starting fee rises from £210 to £215, conversions or demolition from £210 to £215, a late demolition-only warrant application from £300 to £350, and a completion certificate for demolition or conversion carried out without a warrant from £500 to £600. Three fixed fees are held at £150: amendments to a warrant where the value of work is under £5,000, demolition-only applications, and extensions to the period of a warrant. Certification discounts on works over £100,000 are 10% for a Certificate of Design and 3% for a Certificate of Construction, with the fixed discounts on works up to £100,000 rising in line with the cumulative uplift. The full fee table is published in the Building Standards Procedural Handbook from 25 March 2026 rather than in this post, so use this for the direction and the named figures and the Handbook for the full scale.

  7. very strong RN-EQVKC0

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    Section 50(1) treats anything said or written to the consumer by or on behalf of the trader about the trader or the service as a term of the contract, if the consumer took it into account when deciding to enter into the contract or when making any later decision about the service. Section 50(2) subjects that to anything said on the same occasion that qualified it, and to any change expressly agreed. Section 50(3) treats information provided under regulations 9, 10 or 13 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3134) as contract terms, and section 50(4) makes any change to that information ineffective unless expressly agreed. This is the basis for holding a builder to a verbal promise, a written quotation figure or a stated completion date.

  8. very strong RN-P72NY0

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The licence a builder needs to put materials, spoil or a temporary excavation in the street, distinct from the skip permit in section 139 and the scaffolding licence in section 169. s.171(1) permits a person, with the consent of the highway authority for a street that is a highway maintainable at the public expense, temporarily to deposit building materials, rubbish or other things in the street or to make a temporary excavation in it. s.171(2) lets the authority attach any conditions it thinks fit, expressly including conditions to prevent damage and to secure access to statutory undertakers' apparatus, which is where fencing, lighting, reinstatement and duration requirements are imposed. s.171(6) makes contravention of a condition, failure to comply with a direction, or neglect of the fencing, lighting or removal duties an offence carrying a fine not exceeding £10 for each day the contravention continues. s.171(7) lets the authority remove the obstruction or fill the excavation itself and recover its reasonable expenses from the person convicted.

  9. very strong RN-XEV6Y1

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The statutory right to be paid, or to pay, in instalments rather than in a lump sum, and the source of the 45 day threshold that decides whether a small domestic job carries it. s.109(1) entitles a party to a construction contract to payment by instalments, stage payments or other periodic payments for any work under the contract, unless s.109(1)(a) the contract specifies that the duration of the work is to be less than 45 days, or s.109(1)(b) the parties agree that the duration is estimated to be less than 45 days. So a job programmed at under 45 days carries no statutory right to stage payments at all. s.109(2) leaves the parties free to agree the amounts of the payments and the intervals or circumstances in which they become due, and s.109(3) provides that in the absence of such agreement the relevant provisions of the Scheme for Construction Contracts apply, supplying a default payment regime. Note that Part II of the Act does not apply to a contract with a residential occupier under section 106, so this is the framework for contractor and subcontractor payment rather than for a homeowner's own contract.

  10. very strong RN-2T3ONB

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The section that requires every construction contract to say when money becomes due and when it must actually be paid. s.110(1)(a) requires the contract to provide an adequate mechanism for determining what payments become due under the contract and when, and s.110(1)(b) requires a final date for payment in relation to any sum which becomes due. The parties are free to agree the length of time between the due date and the final date for payment, so the Act fixes the structure but not the period. Two anti-avoidance limbs were inserted by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, in force October 2011 in England and Wales and November 2011 in Scotland: s.110(1A) provides that the mechanism is not adequate where payment is made conditional on the performance of obligations under another contract or on a decision by any person as to whether obligations under another contract have been performed, and s.110(1D) provides that the requirement is not satisfied where the due date is determined by reference to the giving of a notice to the person to whom the payment is due. Read with sections 109 and 113.

  11. very strong RN-NF3ZYN

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The ban on pay-when-paid clauses, which is why a subcontractor's price should not carry the risk of the main contractor's client defaulting. s.113(1) makes a provision that makes payment under a construction contract conditional on the payer receiving payment from a third person ineffective, unless that third person, or any other person whose payment is directly or indirectly a condition of that third person's payment, is insolvent. The insolvency exception is defined separately for companies, partnerships and individuals, covering administration, receivership, winding-up orders, bankruptcy orders and sequestration under the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016. s.113(6) provides that where a provision is rendered ineffective the parties are free to agree other payment terms, and in the absence of such agreement the relevant provisions of the Scheme for Construction Contracts apply. Read with section 109 on stage payments; both sit in Part II, which excludes contracts with a residential occupier under section 106.

  12. very strong RN-TUJTHX

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The rule that explains why building control charges differ from council to council and cannot be quoted as a single national figure. Regulation 6(3) sets the overriding objective: the authority must ensure that, taking one financial year with another, the chargeable income as nearly as possible equates to the chargeable costs. It is therefore a cost-recovery regime, not a tax and not a profit centre, and each authority sets its own scheme against its own costs. Regulation 6(2) requires the authority to review its charges annually to meet that objective, and regulation 6(9) defines the financial year as the 12 months beginning 1 April. Recovery is explicitly balanced across years rather than within any single year, so a deficit one year may lawfully be recovered the next. Read alongside regulation 3, which authorises a charging scheme, and regulation 4, which exempts building work required solely to meet the needs of a disabled person from any charge at all.

  13. very strong RN-8JP0PI

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The 100 square metre threshold that is widely misquoted in renovation writing. Regulation 42(1) provides that liability to CIL does not arise in respect of a development if, on completion, the gross internal area of new build on the relevant land will be less than 100 square metres. Regulation 42(2) is the limb usually left out: paragraph (1) does not apply where the development will comprise one or more dwellings, so creating even a single new dwelling makes the development chargeable regardless of how small it is. Regulation 42(3) defines new build for this purpose as that part of the development which will comprise new buildings and enlargements to existing buildings, so the measure is of added floor area, not of the finished building. In practice a domestic extension is more often taken out of charge by the separate residential extension exemption in regulation 42A, which carries no area limit, than by this threshold.

  14. very strong RN-O595GV

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The exemption that keeps most domestic extension and annexe work out of the Community Infrastructure Levy, and the reason a homeowner should never be quoted CIL on a straightforward extension without first checking it. Regulation 42A(1) exempts a person from liability to pay CIL where they own a material interest in a dwelling, referred to as the main dwelling, occupy that main dwelling as their sole or main residence, and the chargeable development is a residential annex or a residential extension. Regulation 42A(2) defines a residential annex as one wholly within the curtilage of the main dwelling which comprises one new dwelling. Regulation 42A(3) defines a residential extension as an enlargement to the main dwelling which does not comprise a new dwelling. No floor area threshold applies to this exemption, unlike the minor development exemption in regulation 42. Paragraphs (5) and (6) were omitted with effect from 31 December 2020. The exemption must be claimed before commencement, and an annexe carries a three year clawback if it is let or sold separately.

  15. very strong RN-D63Z6E

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The penalty that catches homeowners who win a CIL exemption and then start work without telling the council, which is the most common way a self-build or annexe exemption is lost. Regulation 83(1) allows the collecting authority to impose a surcharge equal to 20 per cent of the chargeable amount payable in respect of the development or £2,500, whichever is the lower amount, where development commences before the authority has received a valid commencement notice. Regulation 83(1A) deals with relevant developments, meaning those granted a relief or exemption: here the authority must impose a surcharge of 20 per cent of the notional chargeable amount or £2,500, whichever is lower. The distinction matters because on an exempt development the surcharge is calculated on the notional charge that would have been payable, and the imposition is mandatory rather than discretionary. Read with regulation 67 on commencement notices and regulations 42 and 42A on the exemptions themselves.

  16. very strong RN-BWZN7C

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The Northern Ireland planning fee scale, the devolved equivalent of the England and Scotland schedules and the hardest of the four to find. Category 4, extensions, improvements or alterations to a dwellinghouse, including ancillary buildings within the curtilage and boundary structures such as gates and fences, is £347 for each dwelling. Category 3, the erection of dwellinghouses: £515 for a single dwellinghouse on a reserved matters application and £1,035 on a full application; £1,215 for two dwellings then £434 for each additional dwelling up to 50; above 50 dwellings £22,047 plus £129 for each in excess of 50, subject to a maximum of £323,133. Note that these are the figures in the 2015 Regulations as they stand on this page and that the scale has been amended repeatedly, most recently by the Planning (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025, so check the amending instrument before quoting a current figure.

  17. very strong RN-5M0XLI

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)

    The instrument that explains why there is no national home repair grant and why help varies entirely by council. Article 3 gives local housing authorities a broad power of local housing assistance, allowing them to provide help for repair, improvement and adaptation in any form they choose: grant, loan, equity release, materials or labour. Article 4 sets the supplementary provisions on how assistance is provided, and article 6 requires the authority to provide information and evidence about its scheme, which is the basis of the published local policy every council must adopt before it can give any assistance. Articles 7 and 8 cover contributions towards expenditure and their recovery, the legal route for repayable or charge-secured help. Schedule 3 amends the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 so that sections 4 to 18 and 25 to 28 cease to have effect, abolishing the old mandatory renovation grant regime; article 15 makes the consequential repeals. The result is a wholly discretionary framework, so any figure for council help is local, not national. Disabled Facilities Grants survive separately and remain mandatory.

  18. very strong RN-3APQ6X

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), Acts of the Scottish Parliament

    SCOTLAND, and there is no England equivalent: England relies on leases and service charges where Scotland legislates for flat ownership directly. Sections 1 to 3 fix tenement boundaries and pertinents by default, so ownership of the roof, close and solum is settled by statute rather than by title alone. Section 4 applies the Tenement Management Scheme in Schedule 1 wherever the title deeds are silent, and section 4A lets a local authority pay a share of scheme costs. Sections 7 to 10 abolish the common law of common interest for tenements and replace it with a statutory duty at section 8 to maintain any part providing support or shelter, a prohibition at section 9 on interfering with support or shelter, and a cost recovery right at section 10. Sections 11 to 15 set when liability for repair costs arises, bind successors at section 12, allow a Notice of Potential Liability for Costs at section 13 and give a former owner a recovery right at section 14. Sections 5 and 6 route disputes to the sheriff.

  19. very strong RN-OLMVVL

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), Acts of the Scottish Parliament

    SCOTLAND. The default rules for organising and paying for common repairs in a Scottish tenement, in force since 28 November 2004. Rule 1.2 defines scheme property and rule 1.4 a scheme decision; maintenance expressly includes repairs, replacement, the installation of insulation, cleaning, painting, routine works and gardening, but not demolition, alteration or improvement unless reasonably incidental. Rule 2.2 allocates one vote per flat and rule 2.5 makes a scheme decision by simple majority of all votes allocated, so a single objecting owner cannot block a repair. Rule 2.6 requires at least 48 hours notice of a meeting, and rule 2.10 lets any owner who did not vote in favour and who would bear not less than 75 per cent of the costs annul the decision, within 21 days of a meeting they attended. Rule 4.1 lists the recoverable scheme costs including common insurance and door entry systems. Rule 4.2 shares maintenance costs equally among the flats unless the largest flat's floor area is more than one and a half times the smallest, in which case liability is apportioned by floor area; rule 4.3 applies that same floor-area test to the roof over the close.

  20. very strong RN-4UGLYK

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), Northern Ireland Statutory Rules

    NORTHERN IRELAND, and this is the fourth different householder planning fee in the UK. Made 11 March 2025 by the Department for Infrastructure under sections 223 and 247 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, coming into operation 1 April 2025. Category 4 charges £347 for each dwelling for the extension, improvement or alteration of an existing dwellinghouse, and Northern Ireland folds into that SAME category the erection of a building or other operations within the curtilage for ancillary purposes and the erection of gates, fences, walls or other means of enclosure, which Scotland and Wales charge separately. So the four nations stand at England £548, Wales £585, Scotland £371 and Northern Ireland £347. An outline application for a single dwellinghouse is £515 and a full application £1,035. Reduced fees and refunds rise from £76 to £78, advertisement consent from £226 to £231, and EIA development from £12,664 to £12,924.

  21. very strong RN-DBLVHY

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), Scottish Statutory Instruments

    SCOTLAND. The instrument behind Scotland's EPC reform, replacing the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2008 and underpinning the new-style certificate introduced from 30 April 2028 with a 5 year validity instead of 10. Regulation 1 sets citation, commencement and extent, regulation 2 interpretation, and the following regulations the duties to obtain and produce certificates. Cite this rather than the England and Wales Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 for any Scottish property.

  22. very strong RN-GZLT9O

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), Scottish Statutory Instruments

    SCOTLAND, and these figures contradict the England fees. Made 3 February 2026 and in force from 1 April 2026, amending SSI 2022/50. Category 2 of Table 1 sets the householder planning fee for the enlargement, improvement or other alteration of an existing dwelling at £371 for one dwelling and £742 for two or more, against England's £548 householder fee from the same date. Category 3 charges £371 for an outbuilding or other operation within the curtilage of an existing dwellinghouse ancillary to its enjoyment, and £371 for gates, fences, walls or other means of enclosure along a curtilage boundary. Regulation 3 raises the flat fee from £357 to £371, regulation 4 raises the discretionary fees from £238 to £247 and from £119 to £124, and paragraph 9(1) from £714 to £742. New dwellings are £742 each for the first 10, then £557, then £310 above 49, capped at £185,524.

  23. very strong RN-6IHI71

    The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), Scottish Statutory Instruments

    SCOTLAND. The parent instrument for Scottish planning application fees, amended annually and most recently by SSI 2026/49 in force 1 April 2026. Part 2 covers payment of fees at regulation 3 and the planning authority's discretion to charge at regulation 4, with regulation 5 allowing fees to be waived or reduced and regulation 6 imposing a surcharge on retrospective applications, a Scottish feature England does not mirror. Part 3 lists the cases where no fee is payable, including regulation 7 for means of access for disabled persons and regulation 8 where permitted development rights have been restricted, so a Scottish householder who needs consent only because an Article 4 style restriction applies pays nothing. Schedule 1 carries the calculation rules and Part 3 of that schedule the tables of fees.

  24. very strong RN-MZWVT0

    Valuation Office Agency, HMRC (GOV.UK)

    Published 22 January 2016 and last updated 15 June 2026, applying to England and Wales, this is the authority that corrects two common claims. First, on rebanding after an improvement: bands are based on the open market price on 1 April 1991 in England and 1 April 2003 in Wales, and if a property has increased in size since it was first assessed it may move to a higher band when it is next sold, so an extension does not trigger an immediate rebanding of the current owner. Second, on Council Tax during works: if the property is occupied the band will not be deleted even if significant repair or renovation works are underway, and only where the property is unoccupied and either beyond repair or undergoing major works making it uninhabitable can the owner apply to have the band removed. Reproduces the full band tables: England Band A up to 40,000 pounds through Band H over 320,000 pounds; Wales Band A up to 44,000 pounds through Band I over 424,000 pounds, Wales having nine bands to England's eight. Assessments are based on size, layout, character, location, change of use and the 1991 or 2003 value, and the Valuation Office does not use property price indexes.

  25. very strong RN-UQJZBJ

    Welsh Government (gov.wales)

    WALES. Published 3 April 2017 and not updated since, a 3 MB PDF to be read with the September 2013 amendment slip. This is the Welsh Part P, and it is not the same document as England's 2013 edition. Wales did not follow England in narrowing the definition of a special location, so the scope of notifiable domestic electrical work is wider in Wales. Cite this rather than the England Approved Document P for any Welsh rewire, kitchen or bathroom job.

  26. very strong RN-MQY230

    Welsh Government (gov.wales)

    WALES, and this is a hard contradiction with England. The Welsh Approved Document P states that notifiable jobs include new circuits back to the consumer unit AND extensions to circuits in KITCHENS and special locations such as bathrooms, and that consumer unit replacements are notifiable. England's Approved Document P 2013 edition defines a special location at regulation 12(9) as only the zone around a bath tap or shower head, extending 2.25 metres vertically and 0.6 metres horizontally from a bath tub or shower tray, or 1.2 metres from a shower head where there is none, plus a room containing a swimming pool or sauna heater, so a kitchen is NOT a special location in England and extending a kitchen circuit there is not notifiable. In Wales it is. The Welsh document also confirms replacement, repair and maintenance work is generally not notifiable even in a kitchen or special location, that in large bathrooms the special location is bounded by the walls of the bathroom, and that conservatories, attached garages, detached garages and sheds are not special locations, so work there is notifiable only if it involves a new circuit.

  27. very strong RN-Y1W23U

    Welsh Government (gov.wales)

    WALES, and the householder figure contradicts both England and Scotland. In force from 1 December 2025, rounded to the nearest pound. Category 6, the enlargement, improvement or other alteration of existing dwellinghouses, is £585 where the application relates to one dwellinghouse and £820 for two or more, against England's £548 from 1 April 2026 and Scotland's £371. Category 7(a), operations including the erection of a building within the curtilage of an existing dwellinghouse for ancillary purposes, or gates, fences, walls or other means of enclosure along a curtilage boundary, is £283 in each case. Category 1 charges £667 for each dwellinghouse for new dwellings, with a £16,675 base fee band above 25 dwellinghouses and a maximum of £203,380. A non-material amendment under section 96A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 costs £123 for a householder application and £242 otherwise. Site visits are charged at £493 or £166 per visit depending on category.

  28. very strong RN-J3IMCT

    Welsh Government (gov.wales)

    WALES. Published 20 October 2025. Confirms that Welsh planning fees changed on 1 December 2025 and now cover planning applications, amendments, deemed applications and site visits, all set out in the fee policy and fee document rather than in the England fee regulations. Some applications need no fee and others attract a reduced fee depending on type and circumstances, and paying too little makes the application invalid or delays it. Further guidance sits in the Welsh Development Management Manual, the Welsh counterpart to England's Planning Practice Guidance.

  29. very strong RN-7YAUO5

    Welsh Government (GOV.WALES)

    Eligibility for the Welsh Government Warm Homes Nest scheme, the Welsh equivalent of ECO and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which supplies measures free rather than as a cash grant. Tenure: the applicant must own or privately rent the home, so local authority and housing association tenants are excluded. Financial test: either receipt of a qualifying means-tested benefit (Child Tax Credit with annual income under £18,660, Council Tax Reduction, Pension Credit or Universal Credit) or a low household income below thresholds that vary by household composition, examples given being £15,521 a year for a single adult and £23,166 for a couple, measured after mortgage or rent. Property test: an EPC rating of 54 (band E) or below on the standard route, relaxed to 68 (band D) or below where a household member has an eligible chronic health condition, listed as respiratory disease, circulatory disease, mental health, dementia, and intellectual and developmental disorders. Freephone 0808 808 2244.

  30. very strong RN-GOV6YT

    Welsh Government (GOV.WALES)

    The Welsh replacement for stamp duty, administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority. Main residential rates on or after 10 October 2022: 0% up to £225,000, 6% from £225,001 to £400,000, 7.5% from £400,001 to £750,000, 10% from £750,001 to £1,500,000, and 12% above £1,500,000. Note that Wales has no first-time buyer relief, unlike England. Higher residential rates, for additional properties, on or after 11 December 2024: 5% up to £180,000, 8.5% from £180,001 to £250,000, 10% from £250,001 to £400,000, 12.5% from £400,001 to £750,000, 15% from £750,001 to £1,500,000 and 17% above £1,500,000; the previous higher-rate scale from 22 December 2020 to 10 December 2024 ran a percentage point lower at each band. Wales applies its surcharge as a separate rate table rather than as a bolt-on percentage, so a Welsh higher-rate purchase cannot be worked out by adding a surcharge to the main rates.

  31. very strong RN-ZYGW8S

    Welsh Government (GOV.WALES)

    The devolved Welsh landfill tax rates, administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority under the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Act 2017. From 1 April 2026: standard rate £130.75 per tonne, lower rate £8.65 per tonne, and an unauthorised disposals rate of £196.15 per tonne. For 2025 to 2026 the rates were £126.15 standard, £6.30 lower and £189.25 unauthorised. The unauthorised disposals rate is set at 150% of the standard rate and applies to waste disposed of at a site with no environmental permit, which is what makes fly-tipping a taxable event in Wales as well as a criminal one. The lower rate applies only to materials meeting the qualifying conditions in the 2017 Act, essentially inert material such as rock, soil and concrete. Note the Welsh standard and lower rates match Scotland's from April 2026 but the Welsh lower rate differed in 2025 to 2026, so do not assume the three UK regimes align.

  32. very strong RN-C01OHV

    Welsh Revenue Authority

    Land Transaction Tax replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in Wales from 1 April 2018 and is collected and managed by the Welsh Revenue Authority for the Welsh Government. First published 21 September 2017 and last updated 25 November 2024. The current LTT threshold is 225,000 pounds for residential properties where the buyer does not own other property, and 225,000 pounds for non-residential land and property. The correction most often needed: there is no first-time buyers' relief in Wales, unlike England and Northern Ireland. Higher residential rates apply where the buyer already owns one or more residential properties, though not normally where they are replacing a main residence. LTT is a self-assessed tax and a return must be sent even where there is nothing to pay, except for certain transactions that need no return. Specific reliefs exist for multiple dwellings, group structures and charities. Since 3 July 2023 solicitors and conveyancers can only file LTT online, and the WRA publishes a postcode checker to establish whether a property is in Wales.

  33. strong RN-I9ZVWY

    BCIS (RICS)

    The reference point every UK cost claim is measured against, and the reason so few of them can be sourced publicly. BCIS publishes construction cost data, operational cost data, reinstatement cost data for insurance, and whole-life cost and carbon information. Its named products are BCIS CapX, a cloud platform of independent construction cost data; BCIS OpX for operational costs of commercial buildings; BCIS TotX combining the two; BCIS LCE for whole-life cost and carbon; BCIS IAPB for International Average Building Prices; BCIS Rebuild Plus for indicative rebuild costs; and BCIS ProtX for insurance reinstatement. The critical fact for a reference book: access is behind a login to the BCIS online service, and the site publishes no free public rate tables. Any per-square-metre or per-item figure attributed to BCIS in a public article is therefore either a licensee's quotation of subscription data or an unverifiable secondhand claim, and cannot be checked at source. Cite BCIS for what exists and who maintains it, not for a number.

  34. strong RN-UGNV9N

    BRE Group

    Important currency point for any note mentioning certification schemes: the Home Quality Mark no longer exists under that name. BRE has folded it into the BREEAM product range as BREEAM UK New Construction: Residential, with version 6.1 released in April 2025. HQM led residential sustainability assessment in the UK from 2015 with more than 50,000 homes registered. The scheme assesses homes against three sustainability indicators covering environmental performance (carbon emissions, resource efficiency, biodiversity, circular design), social performance (occupant health and wellbeing, indoor air quality, daylight, thermal comfort, noise, access to green space) and economic performance (efficient use of materials, future-ready infrastructure, running costs, adaptability). Homes are rated on a scale from pass to outstanding. BRE states the certification recognises performance BEYOND minimum regulations only, and that certification can open access to green mortgages and investment incentives. Separately, BREEAM Refurbishment and Fit-Out (currently V7) is the BREEAM standard covering refurbishment rather than new build, and BREEAM has run third-party certified standards since 1990.

  35. strong RN-60JOUR

    BSI (British Standards Institution)

    STATUS: WITHDRAWN on 21 November 2025, superseded by BS 8524-1:2025. BS 8524-1:2013 was published 30 April 2013 and itself replaced PAS 121, which was withdrawn 31 July 2013. It specified requirements for the design, testing and classification of active fire curtain barrier assemblies installed to the recommendations of BS 8524-2, covering reliability and durability, fire resistance, smoke containment and impact resistance of the assemblies, their control devices and ancillary equipment, for curtains of any material. Its two stated functions are maintaining compartmentation against fire and smoke spread, and giving access to escape routes while preserving fire resistance and limiting smoke into protected corridors and shafts. Any note quoting BS 8524-1:2013 or BS 8524-2:2013 is now naming a withdrawn edition and should be updated to the 2025 parts. Catalogue page confirms number, title, publication and withdrawal dates and scope; the requirements are paywalled.

  36. strong RN-602XV1

    Financial Conduct Authority

    The register to check before accepting finance arranged by a builder, showroom or installer. Confirms that in the UK almost all financial firms must be authorised or registered by the FCA, and that the tool shows both whether a firm is authorised and whether it has permission to provide the specific services being offered. Sets out the tool's limits candidly: it cannot confirm whether Financial Services Compensation Scheme or Financial Ombudsman Service protection will apply, it omits products and services offered only to other firms, published crypto restrictions, historic fines, the right to approve financial promotions and the ability to handle client money, all of which sit on the fuller Financial Services Register along with information on individuals. Notes that certain financial products are not regulated at all and so do not appear, that updates take on average 24 hours, and that some information is supplied by firms so accuracy is not guaranteed.

  37. strong RN-1EZXCO

    Financial Conduct Authority

    The regulator's 2026 multi-firm review of the product most often sold as a home improvement loan, published 12 March 2026 and updated 13 March 2026. Establishes the market facts a finance note should cite: second charge mortgages let a homeowner borrow against equity without changing their main mortgage, they are typically less than 4 per cent of regulated mortgage sales, they tend to carry higher interest rates than first charge mortgages, and consumers mostly use them to consolidate debt rather than to fund works. Warns that these customers often carry a high level of debt so a significant proportion may have characteristics of vulnerability including low financial resilience. The FCA reviewed quality of advice, robustness of affordability assessments, the role of intermediaries, record keeping and intermediary fees, sampling firms covering over 40 per cent of second charge advice firms and around 50 per cent of second charge lenders, and found evidence of poor practices creating a risk of poor customer outcomes. Frames expectations against the Consumer Duty and the Mortgage Conduct of Business rules, and follows a 2018 Dear CEO letter to second charge lenders and a 2025 Portfolio Letter to mortgage intermediaries.

  38. strong RN-OJPOLD

    Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

    The RICS page that hosts the three New Rules of Measurement documents as free PDFs plus supporting Excel templates, so a reviewer can check a cost figure against the professional rules without a subscription. It carries RICS NRM 1, October 2021, 4.61 MB PDF, published 28 October 2021, and RICS NRM 2, October 2021, 2.60 MB PDF, alongside NRM 3. The page states that using NRM 1 ensures clients are advised of and have confidence in the quality and consistency of the cost information provided to them, and that supporting Excel templates are available for preparing estimates and cost plans in accordance with NRM 1 and NRM 2. It carries an explicit disclaimer that RICS makes no representation or warranty about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability of the templates, that users must check embedded logic and formulae themselves, and that RICS accepts no responsibility for their misuse. Use this page as the stable landing point and the individual PDFs for the actual rules.

  39. strong RN-RBTGMH

    Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

    The mandatory standard a UK valuer works to, and the right citation whenever a note distinguishes a survey from a valuation. The Red Book UK national supplement sets specific requirements for applying the RICS Valuation Global Standards to valuations undertaken subject to UK jurisdiction; it was published on 19 October 2023 and came into effect on 1 May 2024, applying to all valuations with a valuation date on or after that. Its references were updated following the updated RICS Valuation Global Standards effective 31 January 2025. RICS defines subject to UK jurisdiction as where performance of the valuation contract is subject to UK statutes, rules and regulations, also considering the jurisdiction in which a claim about the valuation could be brought; the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the Republic of Ireland are not part of the UK. The update was made to implement valuation governance amendments from the Valuation Review plus technical updates to public sector, financial reporting and residential content, including a new rotation policy for some regulated purpose valuations. One correction a note should carry: RICS states there is NO new residential mortgage specification. Residential mortgage valuation advice previously sat in VPGA 11 (effective 2019) and before that Appendix 10 of the 2014 edition updated April 2015; the newly updated VPGA 11 sets only high level principles for residential valuation and does not go into significant detail on residential mortgages, and RICS is separately developing a new UK professional standard for the valuation of residential property for owner occupation.

  40. strong RN-2N0ZXN

    Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

    The landing page for the Red Book, the publication that details MANDATORY practices for RICS members undertaking valuation services and serves as a reference for valuation users. The page confirms the current edition, RICS Valuation Global Standards, became effective on 31 January 2025, and that the Red Book sits on top of the International Valuation Standards (IVS), which are the key global guidance for valuation professionals, with the Red Book UK national supplement applying the Global Standards to UK jurisdiction valuations. Use it to make the point that a Red Book valuation is a regulated, mandatory-standard product distinct from an RICS Home Survey, which is governed instead by the Home Survey Standard, even though a Home Survey Level 2 can be bought in a survey and valuation version.