Michelle Niziol comments on Chancellor Hammond’s Spring Budget 2017

Today’s Spring Budget announcement by Chancellor Philip Hammond was a missed opportunity for the housing market.

Our Director Michelle Niziol gives her thoughts on what the Chancellor could have included in the Budget, she says:

“I wasn’t expecting many rabbits from the hat of the Spring Budget but it would have been great to see the Chancellor focus on helping Britain’s housing market.

“First time buyers and first time movers are struggling to get on or move up the housing ladder due to affordability and the need to save for large deposits. For many years earnings have not grown as quickly as house prices and for many millennials home ownership is but a pipe dream.

“More affordable homes are needed in the areas where people want to live and work. The Chancellor should have used today’s Budget to announce new measures to speed up house building and cut planning red tape, as well as announce changes to the Stamp Duty tax system.

“The lower threshold should be increased to become better aligned with today’s average house price as this would help stimulate more movement at the bottom of the house market. The Government should also look to move the cost of this property tax from the buyer to the seller.

“I would also have liked to see the Chancellor scrap the planned cut in tax relief on mortgage interest payments for buy-to-let landlords. The implementation of which will see some landlords paying considerably more tax than they do now, and because of this we are seeing more landlords creating limited companies to avoid higher taxes on their rental incomes.”