The Chancellor will give away half a billion pounds to
second homeowners and landlords through the stamp duty holiday
extension.
Labour analysis reveals this could have built nearly 3000
social rented homes – half the total that were built in England
last year.
The Chancellor announced at the 2021 Budget that the
current stamp duty holiday will be extended to 31st
June. Rather than ending on 31st March, the nil rate
of £500,000 will be in place until 30 June 2021. From 1 July to
30 September, the nil rate will be £250,000, before returning to
the standard rate of £125,000 on 1 October 2021.
Treasury documents show that the Stamp Duty Holiday is set
to cost £1.6 billion. In 2019/20, 34% of homes bought were second
homes, buy-to-let properties and residential properties bought by
companies. The Chancellor has therefore given a £545 million
boost to landlords and second homeowners.
The Chancellor has faced criticism for his poorly targeted
budget. 700,000 renters face a shortfall between their rent and
support available through Universal Credit, yet the Chancellor
chose to freeze Local Housing Allowance. Over half a million
renters are already in arrears, yet the Chancellor announced no
support to prevent a homelessness crisis when the evictions ban
is lifted.
,
Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, said:
“The Conservatives have shown once again they have the wrong
priorities, giving tax breaks to landlords and second homeowners
while failing to tackle runaway house prices and build truly
affordable housing.
“After a decade of failure on housing, we needed a Budget
that put us on the road to recovery and addressed the fundamental
flaws in the housing market. Instead we got reheated policies
with no new ideas on housing.”
Ends
Notes to editors
· The Stamp Duty cut was announced by the
Chancellor in the 2021 budget: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/stamp-duty-land-tax-temporary-reduced-rates
· In 2019/20 34% of homes bought are second
homes, buy-to-let properties and residential properties bought by
companies. Source: HMRC: Quarterly
Stamp Duty statistics Table T2
· The Stamp Duty cut will cost £1.6 billion in
2020-2022: Budget
Policy Costings page 10
· The NHF has estimated that an average grant
of £183,000 is required to build a social rented home:
https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/PUa2CmOvosY4OB5sOIF7K?domain=s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
· Funding given to landlords and second
homeowners could have built nearly 3,000 social homes.
· In 2019/20, 6566 homes for social rent were
built in England: Live
tables on affordable housing supply Table 1000
Additional affordable homes provided by tenure
· Generation Rent has estimated that 700,000
Universal Credit claimants cannot cover their rent.
· Citizens Advice has estimated that half a
million renters are behind on their rent: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/about-us1/media/press-releases/half-a-million-renters-in-arrears-as-evictions-set-to-resume/
