THE PROPERTY EXPERT
Seeing the wood for the trees?
THE housing white paper was released this week to be discussed and to set the tone of the government’s future policies. Of course this is simply a basis for consultation and is subject to adjustments and alterations.
Statistics from the English Housing Sur vey repor t a 380,000 fall in home ownership for under-45s with families over the last five years, so discourse about the real issues is crucial.
Housing Minister Gavin Barwell, prior to the release of the white paper, talked about the possibility of government help to encourage senior people to move into smaller proper ties. This is an issue we have been talking about for some time, as once the children have left the family home, it is often the case that a smaller proper ty would be more appropriate for many couples.
The problem is that stamp duty can be a large burden for anyone selling a family home in or near London in par ticular, though not only in this area; and couples can be understandably indecisive and are less inclined to move as a result of the tax concern.
This has led to the current stalemate, where significant numbers of people are in each camp – those looking for a larger proper ty and those looking for a suitable smaller one, each with a limited supply to choose from, and the added obstruction of stamp duty to consider.
Mr Barwell was said to be considering a change to stamp duty at least for older people, so this could ver y well be a positive step, and we welcome fur ther details on the proposal.
There were also discussions about planning permission, with measures included to help deal with the problem of land-banking, where developers have planning permission but are not building. As many as a third of the UK homes that are granted planning permission never go on to completion, and this is an impor tant factor to correct if we are to address the problems with UK housing supply.
Unfor tunately, the housing white paper itself only makes one mention of stamp duty, and it is not in relation to Gavin Barwell’s comments about more radical adjustments for older people. This is somewhat disappointing, as it looked like the government was star ting to recognise that the stamp duty policy could use rethinking.