Industry body ramps up buy to let tax pressure on Chancellor

In its latest bid to push Chancellor Phillip Hammond to back down on buy to let tax changes, the Residential Landlords Association claims fewer than 20 per cent of the public believe the fiscal propsals will help aspiring first time buyers.

The RLA takes the figure from a survey carried out by polling organisation YouGov for the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ latest publication ‘Homeownership or Bust?’

Of those who said that something should be done to make it easier for young people to buy their first home, fewer than 20 per cent said the government should tax landlords more. 

This undermines the argument made by former Chancellor George Osborne that tax hikes on landlords will make it easier for aspiring homeowners to purchase a property.

Recent changes have included calculating tax on a landlord’s income rather than their profit, restricting mortgage interest relief to the basic rate of income tax and imposing the three per cent stamp duty surcharge on the purchase of homes to let out.

“These figures back up all that we have been saying. Recent tax hikes on landlords will serve only to drive up rents and reduce supply making it more difficult for people to save for a home of their own” claims RLA policy director David Smith.

“With the wider public now in agreement, we call on the Chancellor to use his Autumn Statement [on November 23] to reverse these counter-productive measures.”