A senior Conservative peer has renewed his attack on his own party over the buy to let tax grab on landlords, accusing former Chancellor George Osborne of exacerbating the housing crisis by attacking the rental sector.
Lord Flight, who previously served as shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury when the Tories were in opposition and has been critical of Osborne in the past, has written on the website of the Residential Landlords Association.
In the piece he said that decisions to tax landlords on their income instead of their profit and imposing a new stamp duty levy on the purchase of homes to rent will “drive up rents” and “drive out investment in the sector” at a time when 1.8m new homes to rent are needed by 2025.
Lord Flight points to evidence from the London School of Economics that undermines the Cameron administration’s assertions that landlords are buying homes that first time buyers could have purchased. He also highlights assertions by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that landlords are taxed more heavily than home owners.
Lord Flight calls on landlords to lobby their local MPs to tell them about the damaging impact the tax changes will have on the supply of affordable homes to rent and encourage them to seek changes in the new Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on November 23.
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What people haven't realised is that this is not just the odd percent or two on the tax but it analogous to putting up the duty on fuel by ~50p/litre, and it will go straight on the price at the pumps i.e. Tenants will have to pay this #TenantTax or move.
Pity the likes of Shelter and Crisis support this tax.
Couldn't have put it better. So many Tories are actually against this, including elected Tories at all levels. Let's hope Hammond is listening, as the Treasury don't seem to be.
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