12th
Oct 2015
An online petition set up recently in response to the government’s new tax changes on buy to let mortgages due to be imposed April next year, has so far collected 33,000 signatures. However the industry believes that it is simply a waste of time as it feels that the government will go ahead despite any 'concerns'.
The group responsible for the online petition is fighting the government’s proposals to reduce the tax relief to the basic 20% rate. It was also announced that changes are to be made to the annual claiming of the wear and tear allowance.
A landlord body is critical of the online petition as in a recent article posted on online newspaper, a spokesperson wrote:
"If a petition gets 20,000 signatures the Government responds to it. In practice this just means that they repeat the same thinking and justification for the scheme that they outlined when they announced it, which is exactly what the Government has done in this case" he argued.
"If a petition gets over 100,000 signatures then it is considered for a debate of MPs. That sounds impressive to some; however the reality is very different."
The spokesperson also explained that some people believe that if the required amount of signatures were achieved then the issue will be debated in the House of Chambers’ chamber, in reality it is considered in the Grand Committee Room.
The spokesperson added: "It will also only take place when 'parliamentary time allows' meaning that it could be months down the line, by which point the chance to affect change may well have passed".
Richard Merrick, of PIMS, said: “Although the democratic process allows the general public, who disagree against government changes, to be heard in Parliament, I believe that in this case it would very much be a condescending affair. These meetings have low numbers of attendees and are just carrying out the democratic process to the letter of the law and that is it.”
“As the government is determined introduce these changes then it is highly unlikely to even contemplate a U-turn. The only time that new laws are introduced or rescinded is when there is a public outcry backed by the media, which is highly unlikely with the media’s anti-landlord stance.”
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