Rishi Sunak PM – what does this mean for landlords?
After a turbulent time within the UK government Rishi Sunak is now settling into his post, but what does this mean for UK landlords? Landlords across the UK are looking to Rishi to confront key issues such as rental reforms, tax changes, and mortgages. After the devastating effect Liz Truss had on the UK economy, most specifically the housing market – what’s in store for the coming months?
New housing policies
It’s hard to predict exactly how the housing market will recover from recent events however Rishi Sunak is looking to address the following…
- the manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year could be scrapped as Sunak disagrees with ‘arbitrary top-down numbers’
- instead, he could drive housebuilding through land banking reforms and removing barriers for small builders
- the new prime minister has previously voted in favour of the Renters’ Reform Bill, so it’s likely rental reforms will go ahead
- he’s consistently voted to reduce central government funding for local councils, which could mean less licensing and red tape in the future
- Meanwhile, Sunak is expected to go ahead with the planned corporation tax rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent next April.
During his leadership campaign, he said he wouldn’t cut taxes until inflation was brought under control. It’s unclear whether he’ll revisit plans to cut income tax before the next general election.
Rental reforms
The return of Michael Gove suggests that the government’s plans to reform the rental market could be back on the agenda. However, it was unclear under Liz Trust if the proposals published by Gove in June’s Fairer Private Rented Sector White Paper would be introduced. Although she did commit to scrapping Section 21 evictions. Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said progressing rental reforms should be top of Gove’s ‘in tray’.
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