Government insists property tax rise will have little impact on rents

We know what they are doing, but can’t do anything to stop them. When we had the chance, those who felt betrayed by the Tories either voted Libdem, not at all, or Reform. Despite all the warnings from Reform and sensible economists, Labour was let in by the back door, but instead of a thin majority, they got the majority they needed to change everything without challenge, including voting, and we can now see they’ll probably be here for years to come, and the country will be finished as Great Britain.

I don’t mind if they decide they don’t want any more landlords, I can always sell up and go! But, why should I have to decide to do this and evict my tenants? If I can’t make a profit from my business then i can’t run it, so rents will have to go up by a minimum of 5% just to stand still, let alone a small increase to fund all the other cost increases which is probably another 5.

Pennycook is economical as always with the truth.
If my costs go ups so will the tenants .
But this is relatively small fry compared with the RRA. That for me is what has raised the rent levels significantly They outlawed bidding in RRA so I just go in at a much higher asking price than I would have before RRA and actively invite offers on that figure . Yesterday I put one up on a recently vacated property for 28% higher than i had been getting . I fully expected to get knocked down with an associated sneer of “ youre having a larf mate “ . But I got 2 offers in at that asking price . One of them moved in today.
The Law of unintended consequences perhaps.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Clarke at 05/11/2026 – 19:24
It sets the rent for even fewer future tenants

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Clarke at 05/11/2026 – 19:24
You are right that the Renters Rights Act (and labour’s landlord database that they still want to go with it even though it is a waste of money) are the bigger problem that will put rents up even more because just as you are doing, landlords and their agents will now advertise high because of labour’s RRA and advertised rents and portal rents feed into market rents. Labour’s Renters Rights Act is inflationary.

But if John Healey had wanted to include something in his budget to reduce upward pressure on rents he could have done that by allowing small landlords to offset their finance costs against income; he didn’t do that and in combination with the Bank of England putting interest rates up, that puts pressure on rents.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 09:27
Yes, Healey showed weakness I thought and did a beige Switzerland Budget . He will sit and wait and if the backlash and political damage caused by his measures get too great he will do a traditional U turn on some measures and then hope to get plaudits for being seen as a ` reasonable and a listening ` Chancellor . Its a squeeze and release tactic that captors often do with their hostages. Stockholm syndrome on a national scale is what they crave. Politicians find it nigh on impossible though in this digital age to continue to create that mystique about themselves as they did in a bygone era. Transparency and at least some humility would serve them better me thinks. People can respect that in a fellow human . Better than trying to create a false illusion that his brain is somehow 100 times more capable than the rest of us. AI has put paid to that false illusion and will rapidly now continue to do so

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Clarke at 06/11/2026 – 09:59
When labour came to power they acknowledged that they need to grow the economy…it is the only solution to the debt crisis. And an economy is made up of markets that you need to grow. The private rental sector is about 4.7 million households (about 1/5 of all households) and it has a combined property value of about £1.58 trillion. It is one of the UK’s critical markets providing critical infrastructure.

Labour keep saying that they are going to fix the housing problem by building council houses; but since labour came to power less than 4% of all houses built have been council houses. There isn’t any evidence in 2026 either that councils are good at building houses or that they are efficient at turning the assets under their control over to house people. The public finances are so bad that in order to grow the economy, whichever government is in power, or aspires to be in power needs to have a growth strategy for EVERY UK market. It was always obvious that labour weren’t going to build 1.5 million new homes and labour have already also acknowledged that the key to stabilising rents in the medium to long term is to increase the supply of housing. It is obvious to anybody other than an idiot or a liar that in order to succeed, the government needs to increase the supply of housing in the not-for-profit sector AND ALSO increase the supply of housing in the private rental sector.

Labour keep banging on about how they are going to build more council houses and build 1.5 million new homes to fix the housing problem…..but these are just lies. The trouble with repeating the same old lies whilst they actually do something else is that they don’t address the real problems or come up with real solutions. The building society financial model for example is a not-for-profit concept based on mutuality. It isn’t perfect and during the 2008 financial crash it became apparent that some building societies had invested in the same dodgy collateralised debt products that the main stream banks had invested in (rather than for example, investing in UK housing stock). Norway has a tiny number of council houses and a greater number of not-for-profit houses using a slightly different model. By persisting with their lies, labour are failing to address the real problems….like answering the question for example, why don’t building societies build houses?…and come up with real solutions.

John Healey had his chance to do something in his first budget to address the real problem that he needs to grow the not-for-profit sector and ALSO grow the private rental sector. He could have reversed George Osborne’s decision to stop small landlords offsetting their finance costs against rents to mitigate some of the damage caused by the labour RRA. He could have introduced capital allowances for energy efficiency/energy security investments. But he didn’t do it.

What John Healey did instead was to go along with the same old lies that we have got used to over the last two years: John Healey has already been told not just by the Office for Budget Responsibility but also by the Bank of England that raising taxes on rental income will raise rents. But he raised taxes again anyway…John Healey is using tenants as tax collectors and along with the Bank of England’s rise in interest rates, this feeds into inflation.

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 05/11/2026 – 16:43
Except of course if voters get off their back sides and vote Reform at every given opportunity. Should that happen then we might finally begin to see some light at the end the tunnel.

Reply to the comment left by PH at 06/11/2026 – 19:42
Every extreme measure is being taken against Reform UK because they are scared they may succeed.

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 06/11/2026 – 23:26
Reform have absolutely no chance
A party of failed Tories who have Zero discernible policies apart from ‘Stop the boats’ Reform would be disastrous for the country