Government insists property tax rise will have little impact on rents

Mr Pennycook is deluded all my rents are going up, straight after Christmas, which includes those on LHA

Martin Lewis poorly asked John Healy if this extra 2% percentage rise would have an effect on future rents. Healy muttered some words under his breath which sounded like ” that’s up to the landlords ” and swiftly moved on as they do. Martin Lewis had an opportunity to press harder on this important subject but let Healy off the hook. Another rare important opportunity missed. Unfortunately your normal average Joe will not know what actually is happening here.

Reply to the comment left by Nickyh at 04/11/2026 – 16:56
Typical labour behaviour….they say one thing, but do something else. Labour came to power promising to grow the economy then they increased employers’ national insurance, dropped the level at which it kicked in and proposed giving all employees employment rights on day one. Retail and hospitality were already having a hard time and the results of Rachel Reeves’ budgets on the economy were devastating. John Healey has now kicked the can down the road on defence because labour have already admitted they don’t know how to pay for increased defence spending:

https://conservativepost.co.uk/defence-funding-gap-grows-to-15bn-as-labour-admits-it-doesnt-know-how-to-pay-for-it/

They’ve also kicked the can down the road on reducing spending on benefits. They say they WILL reduce spending on benefits but they don’t say HOW. They have no coherent plan.

The only solution to the debt pile is to grow the economy and reduce unemployment but they are still punishing employers for employing people: They don’t have a plan because they don’t understand business or economics. In the article at the top of this thread Matthew Pennycook is quoted as admitting “The obvious answer to affordability challenges in the private rented sector, as well as everywhere else, is to build more housing supply.”

Developers can only build more houses if people can afford to pay for them. Less than 4% of homes built since labour came to power have been council houses. It was always obvious that they didn’t have the money to build 1.5 million new homes, but they lied about this anyway. In his first budget John Healey could have come out with a plan to develop the private rental sector….allow investors to offset their finance costs, introduce capital allowances for energy efficiency/security improvements. He didn’t do it because they are ideologically opposed to it.

Saying that increasing taxes on rental income won’t increase rents is just another lie.

They will propose legislation for reducing the unsustainable welfare bill (I don’t include pensions!) during this Parliament, but they will do it “the Labour way!”. That means at least 2 more years of massive growth in the welfare Bill as new claimants sign up, and in the unlikely event serious reductions do arrive, they will be for ‘future’ claimants. Therefore, the welfare bill will not be reduced. In fact, it will keep growing for many years to come.

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 17:30
When John Healy muttered some words under his breath which sounded like that’s up to the landlords he knew that what he was doing was to going to raise rents.
Labour lie about the real effect of their policies. If you say something like we want to build more council houses and 1.5 million new homes then you can pretend that you are not lying, at least for a while. If you then surround yourself with people who say we are going to build 1.5 million new houses, i.e. you collect people who will lie for you in key positions, then you can hope that you will survive until the next general election. If the people that you have recruited to lie for you do not build 1.5 million new houses you can just sack them. The reason you do this is that you know that a proportion of the electorate will want to believe your lies.
But the lies are still just lies. Just as the Americans got fed up with lies from Donald Trump when they saw their gas prices going up and the lies about pump prices not coming down did not equate with what happened when people reached the gas station, the electorate in the UK will get fed up of the labour lies when their rent goes up or their mortgage payments go up and they cannot get a job to pay for it. John Healey knows that he is using tenants as tax collectors.

One of my tenants contacted me and offered a 10% rise just in case we sell. Accepted effective next year.

John Healey was correct when he said the GOVERNMENT tax rise would not increase rents. It is the LANDLORD’S section 13 which will increase the rent.

Reply to the comment left by The_Maluka at 05/11/2026 – 10:04
Smoke and mirrors….John Healey knows that what he is doing will increase rents and he knows that the government is using tenants as tax collectors.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 05/11/2026 – 10:17
This..,

Reply to the comment left by Si BB at 05/11/2026 – 12:36
I’m not sure what this reply was meant to say but when Rachel Reeves increased employers National Insurance she was using employees as tax collectors whilst pretending that she was doing something else. And when John Healey put up taxes on rental income again, on top of Rachel Reeves changes, he knew that he would be using tenants as tax collectors as well.

This labour government says one thing, but they do something else, and this behaviour is consistent: John Healey had his chance at his first budget to do something different, something honest, but he didn’t do it.