It had been mooted that medium-sized sites would be exempt from this levy, meaning smaller sites would not have to pay this cost.

In a recent update from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) which gave guidance on the calculation about this levy, no exemption related to medium-sized sites was included.

Richard Beresford, CEO at the NFB, said the levy should “never have been proposed” due to the burden it poses the housing industry.

“The decision to not implement our third fallback recommendation of exempting medium sized sites will be a nail in the coffin for many projects and because they will be the first to submit applications under the levy regime, hit SMEs hardest,” said Richard.

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“It is an appalling way for this exiting government to treat the businesses that did not cause the ills this levy intends to fix.”

Rico Wojtulewicz, director of policy and market insight at the NFB, added that rejecting the proposed exemption for medium-sized sites would also hamper housing delivery.

Rico said: “It will shrink the size of homes, maximise units in apartment blocks, eliminate a desire for good design and worse of all, further damage the business models of our locally employing, apprentice training, quality focused, variety delivering SMEs.

“The announcement did note that the government are keeping this decision under review, and we can only hope that the next government is ready to rewire Britain, change Whitehall’s anti British business culture and put fairness back into the tax system.”