13th
May 2022
A PRS trade body calls for the government to abolishing the buy to let extra 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge to ease the housing crisis by encouraging more investment from landlords to purchase other properties to ‘house’ renters who cannot afford to buy their own homes.
The trade body continues its long standing campaign to scrap the surcharge so as to increase rental housing stock to meet the ever increasing rental demand and it will also boost transaction levels.
The government’s onslaught on the PRS including stopping the ‘wear and tear’ allowance, the phasing out of the mortgage interest relief changes along with the 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge, have heavily impacted landlords’ profits over the past few years causing many to sell up and leave the sector, reducing private rented housing stock and of course increasing rental prices.
Many private renters in certain regions have had no alternative but to try to outbid each other to find a home.
Capital Economics, an independent economic research consultancy based in London, states that if the government did scrap the surcharge then over the next decade it could see around 900,000 new PRS homes in the UK.
The consultancy’s modelling suggests that there would be significant increases in income and corporation tax receipts giving the Treasury an extra boost of £10bn over the next ten years.
A spokesperson for the trade body, said: “Ministers have been repeatedly warned of the damage that would be caused if they continued to attack the private rented sector.
“The supply crisis is completely counterproductive to the government’s mission to turn renters into homeowners. By suppressing supply whilst demand increases, with rents going up as a result, they continue to make it harder for tenants to save for a home of their own.
“The chancellor needs to wake up to a crisis of the government’s own making, scrap the tax on new homes to rent and review other measures which add to a landlord’s costs.”
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