Autumn Budget 2021: Affect on property
We’ve been eagerly anticipated conservative Autumn budget 2021. With some reassuring news for the housing market, new homes, cladding removal, planning & stamp duty. See spring Budget 2021: Upbeat Property Focus for previous plans.
New homes
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak promised a multi-year investment of nearly £24 billion to build new homes.
He confirmed £1.8 billion would be spent on developing 1,500 hectares of brownfield land unlocking one million new homes and £11.5 billion investment through the Affordable Homes Programme. This works out to be £11,250 per home.
Cladding removal
He announced £5 billion to remove dangerous cladding from all high rise buildings, partially funded by the Residential Property Developers Tax to be levied on developers with profits over £25 million at a rate of four per cent.
No mention was made of buildings with potentially unsafe cladding below 18 metres, where thousands of leaseholders remain unable to sell their homes.
The cost of replacing unfit cladding systems continues to shred the Building Safety Fund at an astronomical rate of £30m a month, and these allocations only cover high-risk buildings.
Planning
The Chancellor promised £65 million to ramp up England’s planning system, including digitisation to make local plans easier to access.
Hopefully this will simplify planning making the process more transparent and easier for councils and residents to navigate.
Stamp duty
In spite of pressure from some parts of the property industry, there was no extension to the Stamp Duty Tax holiday in the budget 2021, which cancelled the buying tax for homes up to £500,000.
The result of cutting stamp duty by up to £15,000 caused a “stampede” in the property market and pushed house prices up by as much as 20 per cent.
Ultimately the property market sustains thousands of jobs, including tradespeople, removal companies and suppliers of white goods, and supports a thriving property market for years to come.
What are your thoughts on the 2021 Autumn budget?