Industry body launches e-postcard campaign over buy to let taxes

The National Landlords Association has launched an e-postcard campaign for letting agent and landlord members to lobby the government over the proposed removal of mortgage interest relief, ahead of the Autumn Statement on November 23. 

The NLA wants people to send one of two e-postcards that outline what it describes as 'the damage' of former chancellor George Osborne's measure to restrict mortgage interest tax relief for landlords starting next April. 

“Despite more than a year’s worth of campaigning, the Treasury still won’t accept the disastrous impact that Section 24 [containing the mortgage interest measure] will have on landlords and tenants.  It seems that all our words and figures haven’t got through to them, so we’ve decided to make it as clear as possible – by drawing them a picture" explains Richard Lambert, chief executive officer at the NLA.

“With the Autumn Statement just around the corner, this provides the perfect opportunity for landlords to make their voices heard, and to relay the message that the proposed tax changes will only make housing problems in the UK worse.

“This policy will push 44 per cent of basic rate tax-paying landlords into a higher bracket, forcing them to either sell up and end perfectly happy tenancies, or increase rents. We want the government to minimise the impact by applying the rules only to landlords who take out new buy-to-let loans from April 2017”.