Autumn Statement 2016 – Other Property relevant announcements

– The Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced that £1.4bn will be made available aimed at delivering 40,000 new affordable homes in England to help confront the housing challenge in the UK.

– The government will provide a £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund to release land available for building 100,00 new homes in high demand areas.

– Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) will increase from 10% to 12% in June, thus increasing directly the cost of Landlords insurance and all other property related insurances.

– Right to buy for housing association tenants planned

– The government has also abandon planned cuts to Universal Credit, due to come into force in April 2017.  The Changes to Universal Credit (the single payment being rolled out across the UK) will reduce the Taper Rate from 65% to 63% so benefits will now be withdrawn at a rate of 63p for every pound of net earnings.

– National Living Wage minimum will increase to £7.50 from £7.20 next April.

Mark Hayward, Managing Director, National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), comments on the new measures to boost house building expected to be announced in the Autumn Statement:

“We welcome the news that the Chancellor is set to announce a £1.4 billion funding injection for house building, while a relaxation of how existing affordable housing funding can be used will help to diversify our housing mix, creating the homes that people want and need.

“However, the creation of 40,000 new homes that this new funding is expected to deliver is still painfully short of the number of affordable homes we need to solve the housing crisis and get first time buyers on the housing ladder. We hope that the Government will announce an intent to do much more when it releases a widely expected White Paper at the Autumn Statement today. It is vital that the Government uses this to signal a radical rethink in its housing strategy and consider measures such as building homes on unused Green Belt land to really kick start the house building boom we badly need.”