A Conservative MP is calling on the government to help landlords boost rental supply by reforming taxation.
Andrew Lewer, Conservative MP for Northampton South, also wants an overall increase in house building volumes in a bid to ease the current mismatch between tenants and available rental units.
Writing in The House of Commons magazine Lewer makes an eloquent case for reform, saying: “Restrictions on mortgage interest relief and the imposition of a stamp duty levy on the purchase of homes to rent out have indeed made life more costly for landlords.
“Landlords are seeing the cost of their mortgages going up and it quickly becomes a far more financially prudent decision to sell their homes rather than deal with the burdensome and indeed confusing job of managing a buy-to-let.
“Marry this to the uncertainty surrounding the government’s plans for the sector, whether in energy efficiency requirements or the ending of Section 21 repossessions, and you do not exactly have an attractive market.”
He wants reform to begin with the scrapping of the additional homes stamp duty surcharge which, he claims, “would see almost 900,000 new private rented homes made available across the UK over the next decade. This would lead to a £10 billion boost to government revenue through increased tax receipts.”
He also wants an unfreezing of Local Housing Allowance and greater security on future rental regulations to encourage long term investment.
Lewer adds: “There is perhaps a myth that the rental sector is dominated by property tycoons; in fact, individual private landlords make up 94 per cent of the market share with half letting just one property. Landlords cannot simply shoulder the rising costs.”
You can read the full article here.
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