Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Travel expenses tax deductible of course 🙂

Reply to the comment left by “Manchester Landlord” at “10/10/2015 – 19:31“:

ML, those were my thoughts exactly. Whilst I’m a member of the RLA, I have no real influence on them. Anyone else have any contacts in either associations?

Reply to the comment left by “Jon Pipllman” at “10/10/2015 – 18:35“:

‘Am I missing something?’

As much as it saddens me to say so, I think indeed you are missing a fair amount, my friend.

162 TCGA
Key features of the incorporation and disincorporation reliefs in TCGA 1992

>Mark Shine

On that I simply disagree with you.

Saturday evening quiz (just for fun)
Who, do you think this is true of? (don’t google it as that would be cheating and be boring – just think: who do you think this could apply to?)
‘Everything that comes from you is a lie. You seem incapable of admitting lies and you have persisted in what was at times a ridiculous defence. Not a single word from you can be relied upon to be even possibly true.’

I ask, because one particular person really sprang to mind, for me!
‘

90% of the impact of cuts
appeared to be felt by tenants, and only 10% by their landlords

3.2 Changes to housing benefit
Housing benefit is forecast to cost £26.0 billion in 2015–16, with roughly 60% of this
going to social housing tenants, and 40% to private-sector tenants.18 As already
mentioned, spending has actually increased since 2010–11, despite significant
discretionary cuts to housing benefit These cuts were of two main kinds. The first was to
reduce the maximum amount of housing benefit that could be claimed, for almost all
claimants in the private sector, and for a particular group of social-sector claimants. The
second was a change in the way the maximum amount of housing benefit private-sector
tenants can claim is indexed.19
The government might have hoped that a significant part of the impact of these cuts
would be felt by private landlords, rather than their tenants. Economic theory (and
previous evidence) suggests that a significant amount of the housing subsidies provided
by governments feed through into higher rents, and so cuts to housing benefit should
reduce rents, mitigating the effect on tenants. However, an independent evaluation
conducted for the DWP found that, at least in the short run, 90% of the impact of cuts
appeared to be felt by tenants, and only 10% by their landlords.25 In the long run, the
incidence may be different. The evaluation also found evidence that some of those subject
to the national caps on LHA rates had moved out of the affected areas (largely in central
and inner London) as a result of the caps.
http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN160.pdf

The housing benefit headache continues…
If the government’s decision to help pensioners reflected a political calculation that the electoral rewards would outweigh the fiscal costs, the same can surely not be said of the housing benefit bill.

Over the course of the past five years the cost of housing benefit has risen by £700 million, some £3 billion more than the Coalition initially thought it would need to spend on the programme. The reason for this is fairly simple: The recovery in wages for British workers has been hugely disappointing for all involved, with salaries down in real terms, while rents have been moving in the opposite direction.

As a consequence, the government has been forced to house many more people than it was expecting in private rental housing. And here’s what happened — housing benefit costs have shot up:

OBR Housing benefitOBR

Wages in the UK are finally picking up, but the pace remains disappointing and real income gains are largely being driven by rock-bottom inflation rather than successful wage negotiations. However, these wage gains will have to accelerate faster than rents over the next few years if the housing benefit bill is going to start falling.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-biggest-challenges-facing-the-new-conservative-government-2015-5

> Ros

Tony Blair

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/07/boris-johnson-tax-credits-conservatives_n_8255872.html
Boris Johnson: I Will Challenge Government Over Tax Credits Cuts Roll Out
He later said: “We’ve got to make sure that people on the lowest incomes are not hit by these cuts.”