What does The Budget mean for the Housing sector?

Yesterday's budget announcement saw George Osborne reveal that stamp duty will be raised to 15% for properties worth over £2m that are sheltered within companies, and raised to 7% if bought by an individual.

The Chancellor also announced the expansion of the Get Britain Building scheme to increase the development of new homes.

There will, however, be a delay in the release of the National Policy Planning Framework. The framework is now scheduled to be released next Tuesday 27th March.

There have been numerous responses from yesterday's budget announcement...

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation:

"We welcome the chancellor's move to close the loophole that allowed wealthy individuals to buy properties through companies and avoid stamp duty. It meant people on high incomes could avoid paying tax on the purchase of expensive homes.

"However it is disappointing that the chancellor has failed to put investment in housing at the forefront of driving forward economic growth in the UK.

"Supporting housing associations to maximise the investment they make in building and maintaining homes creates new jobs, saves the government benefit payments, invests in local communities and boosts general economic activity. Few other sectors can offer this potential with such short lead-in times and the prospect of so much growth directly benefiting local communities.

"Boosting the housing sector would be an easy win for the economy, for taxpayers and for families. And with 4.5 million people on waiting lists and one million children in overcrowded accommodation a big boost for fairness too."

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter:

"Extra funding to boost house building is welcome, but at these levels will barely make a dent in our housing crisis.

"If the government is serious about getting Britain building, it needs to deliver serious investment to match. This would not only help the millions of hard-pressed families who face a daily struggle to meet their housing costs, but would support Britain's economic recovery by creating jobs and growth."

Mark Henderson, chief executive of Home Group:

"Land price is often the most significant chunk of cost when it comes to developing affordable homes and is often a barrier to the volume of social housing you can build on any one development. By ring-fencing public sector land and selling it at an affordable price for building more affordable homes it would allow social enterprises to build a far greater percentage of social housing on a site. Were the government to release this land on a 'buy now, pay later' basis, we can begin immediately to tackle the lack of social housing in the UK.

"We would welcome clarity around the role that REITs would play in social housing. There is potential for them to provide alternative sources of funding as well as improving cashflow for the further development of affordable homes but the sector needs to be clear about the wider implications of introducing these vehicles."

Source: Guardian