The Home Builders Federation has raised concerns about applying Council Tax to vacant new-build properties, warning the measure will disproportionately damage small and medium-sized developers. SMEs typically hold completed units awaiting sale and rely on cash flow from staged handovers. The added tax burden directly cuts into development margins already tightened by rising costs and higher interest rates. Major developers can absorb such levies; smaller firms cannot. HBF argues this policy contradicts the government's stated goal of accelerating house building and risks pushing marginal developers out of the market entirely.