MP, Labour’s Shadow
Chancellor, responding to news of Rishi
Sunak’s plan for an increase in stamp duty on overseas buyers of
UK property, said:
“This is simply a re-announcement of a watered-down version
of Labour policy.
“The £120 million promised by this surcharge is a paltry
one-tenth of what’s needed to reverse the Tories’ devastating
cuts to homelessness services that have left over 700 homeless
people dying a year and thousands more rough sleepers on our
streets.
“This half-measure is yet another sign that next week’s
Budget will be underwhelming and disappointing, at a time when we
need significant action to tackle the crises facing the
country.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
· Labour’s
Offshore Company Property Levy, designed with reference to models
in other jurisdictions, is discussed here and was predicted to
raise £3.3 billion: https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Fair-Tax-Programme-2019.pdf.
· Merely
between 2010-11 and 2016-17 there was a £996 million cut in
homelessness services: see https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Funding-Real-Change.pdf at
p. 25.
· 726
homeless people died in England and Wales in the last year of
available figures: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsofhomelesspeopleinenglandandwales/2018.
More than 28,000 people in the UK were recorded sleeping rough in
the last year, according to research by the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-51398425.
