Philip Hammond presented his much anticipated first Autumn Statement today but unfortunately has followed in his predecessor’s footsteps by once again disappointing landlords who had been hoping for good news to be announced.
In a double whammy, he failed to undo any of the previous tax rises affecting landlords and has gone further by banning landlord’s agents from charging fees to tenants. The details have yet to be announced but it is likely that this will increase costs to landlords which may not be able to be recovered through increased rents.
Other changes announced which will impact the property sector include
- £1.4bn fund to build 40,000 new houses
- £2.3bn fund for housing infrastructure
- Right to Buy pilot for housing association tenants
- Insurance Premium Tax to increase from 10% to 12% in June 2017
- 100% business rates relief for a five year period for new fibre infrastructure
- Rural rate relief will increase from 50% to 100% in April 2017.
- Confirmed the Corporation Tax rates will drop to 17% in 2020
- Help to Buy ISAs to continue
- Confirmed new £1k tax allowance for property income previously announced in Budget 2016
Whilst we have some information today on these announcements we will provide more detailed updates as further documents are released. The detailed tax provisions will be published on 5 December 2016 in Draft Finance Bill 2017.
