PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR
Longer tenancies – The government will consult on the barriers to landlords offering longer, more secure tenancies to those tenants who want them.
Private rented sector access schemes – The government will provide £20 million of funding for schemes to support people at risk of homelessness to access and sustain tenancies in the private rented sector.
Empty homes premium – The government is keen to encourage owners of empty homes to bring their properties back into use. To help achieve this, local authorities will be able to increase the council tax premium from 50% to 100%. (This has not been confirmed as including those void periods during tenant changes).
Targeted Affordability Funding – To support Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claimants living in areas where private rents have been rising fastest, the government will increase some Local Housing Allowance rates by increasing Targeted Affordability Funding by £40 million in 2018-19 and £85 million in 2019-20. This will increase the housing benefit awards of approximately 140,000 claimants in 2018-19, by an average of £280, in areas where affordability pressures are greatest.
Creditworthiness and rental payment data – The government will launch a £2 million competition, to support FinTech firms developing innovative solutions that help first‑time buyers ensure their history of meeting rental payments on time is recognized in their credit scores and mortgage applications.
TAXATION
Personal Taxation – The Budget announces that in 2018-19 the Personal Allowance and Higher Rate Threshold will increase further, to £11,850 and £46,350 respectively.
SDLT for First-time Buyers – From 22 November 2017, stamp duty land tax will be abolished for first-time purchases up to £300,000 and the existing rate of 5% will apply between £300,000 and £500,000. Will not apply to properties above £500,000.
SDLT Higher Rate for Additional Properties – Minor amendments will be made to prevent abuse of relief for replacement of a purchaser’s only or main residence by requiring the purchaser to dispose of the whole of their former main residence and to do so to someone who is not their spouse.
Corporate indexation allowance – To bring the UK in line with other major economies and broaden the tax base through removing relief for inflation that is not available elsewhere in the tax system, the corporate indexation allowance will be frozen from 1 January 2018. Accordingly, no relief will be available for inflation accruing after this date in calculating chargeable gains made by companies.
Mileage rates for landlords – The government will extend the option to use mileage rates to individuals operating property businesses, on a voluntary basis, to reduce the administrative burden for these businesses.
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) payment window – The introduction of the 30-day payment window between a capital gain arising on a residential property and payment will be deferred until April 2020.
Taxing gains made by non-residents on immovable property – To align the UK with other countries and remove an advantage which non-residents have over UK residents, all gains on non-resident disposals of UKcommercial property will be brought within the scope of UK tax. This will apply to gains accrued on or after April 2019.
Changing how non-resident companies’ UK property income and certain gains are taxed – From April 2020, income that non-resident companies receive from UK property will be chargeable to corporation tax rather than income tax. Also from that date, gains that arise to non-resident companies on the disposal of UK property will be charged to corporation tax rather than CGT.
Rent-a-room relief – The government will publish a call for evidence to establish how rent-a-room relief is used and ensure it is better targeted at longer-term lettings.
HOUSEBUILDING INVESTMENT
The Budget makes available over £15 billion of new financial support for house building over the next five years, bringing total support for housing to at least £44 billion over this period. It introduces planning reforms to ensure more land is available for housing and that the country is maximizing the potential of its towns and cities to build new homes:
Investment Home Building Fund – loans to SMEs to build homes £1.5 billion
Small Sites: infrastructure and remediation –grants for remediation and infrastructure to accelerate the building of homes on small and stalled sites £630 million
Local Authority house building: additional investment – more borrowing for Councils to build new council homes £1 billion
Housing Infrastructure Fund: extend – grants to local authorities for strategic infrastructure that unlocks new housing £2.7 billion
Land Assembly Fund – assembling fragmented pieces of land into ready to go sites for developers to build homes on £1.1 billion
Estate Regeneration – transform run-down estates and provide more housing £400 million
New financial guarantees – to support private sector house building £8 billion
