Jeremy Hunt announces in Budget he is scrapping the short-term lets tax regime, and abolishing stamp duty relief on multiple dwellings.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his Budget today that the furnished holiday lets tax relief would be scrapped.
He also said Stamp Duty relief on multiple properties would be abolished, as it was being “regularly abused”.
On Capital Gains Tax on property, the Chancellor reduced the top rate from 28% to 24%, which he said would bring in more money as it will cover more transactions.
In a tax-cutting Budget, he cut National Insurance from 10% to 8%, which he said would give the average worker £450 per year.
“We should help people to keep as much as possible of their own money,” he said.
INDUSTRY REACTION
Richard Donnell, Zoopla
Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla, says: “The budget marks another missed opportunity to take action on boosting supply and mortgage availability in the housing market.
“The consensus is that the country needs more new homes. Supply has increased, but this has stalled.
“There is a need for widespread reform of the planning system to encourage supply. More funding is needed for social and affordable homes, and housing infrastructure investment to unlock supply,” he says.
“Another missed opportunity is the decision not to make the £625,000 threshold for first-time buyer relief permanent. This means 30% more first-time buyers will be liable to pay full stamp duty from March next year.”
Marc Vlessing, Founder and Chief Executive at first-time buyer house developer Pocket Living, says: “The rapidly emerging consensus is that we need to deliver 500,000 new homes per year, yet we can barely manage 200,000 at present.
“This was a real chance, perhaps the Chancellor’s last, to unlock 1.6m homes on brownfield sites through a fairer and faster planning system, support SMEs to rapidly increase housing delivery, introduce real measures to get those waiting hundreds of thousands of people onto the housing ladder, or use housing as a means to drive significant productivity gains to support key industrial and business sectors.”
He has also announced a £242 million of investment in Barking Riverside and Canary Wharf in London (Via @EveningStandard)