1^st Jun 2018

An industry body is demanding the government to rethink the way that they handle landlords' taxation, as the number of rental home stock is drastically falling.

The number of available rental homes has declined and with the prediction of more than 25% of UK households will be renting their homes by 2025, the housing crisis will be further exacerbated.

An association of letting agents' latest research showed that there was major fall of rental properties by 46,000 between March 2016 and March 2017. The sharp decline unsurprisingly coincides with the introduction of the extra 3% stamp duty levy and the phasing out of the mortgage interest relief.

When Prime Minister Theresa May trumpeted the government's new National Planning Framework her statement was extremely ironic when she said that ‘rents come down’ when ‘supply goes up.’

Latest figures show that in fact during March just under a quarter (23%) of tenants had their rents increased, which is the highest level since September 2017 when 27% of tenants experienced rent increases.

The spokesperson for the trade body that is calling for the government to change its ways, said: "The figures show that tax hikes on the sector are choking off supply and making it difficult for prospective tenants, many of whom cannot afford to buy a home of their own, to access the homes to rent they need. At the same time that the Ministry of Housing has published its corporate plan in which it pledges to support the delivery of one million homes by 2020, this is hardly an auspicious start."

He finished by saying: "Delivering homes just for those who can afford to buy is not a policy which meets the needs of many less fortunate households in the UK. With corporate investors still accounting for only two per cent of the private rental market, it is time to develop pro-growth taxation that supports the majority of landlords who are individuals or small businesses to invest in the new homes to rent we desperately need."

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