The Landlord calls the tune!

If you are the average Private Sector Landlord (PSL) you will be a Daily Mail Reader, and own just one By To Let (BTL) which currently will be let on a Six Month Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) and your tenant will have been in occupation for over four years. You will have a two bedroomed mid terrace house which you rent put. You will be a traditional Conservative Voter!

You will have a portfolio of smaller investments which you acquired via the Saturday Edition of the Daily Mail, but your “core activity” will be your BTL property.

You will be aggrieved that HMG has announced a punitive tax regime and will be “considering” joining the exodus of PRL resulting in a considerably reduced supply of houses to rent. Those that advise James Brokenshire are giving him bad advice. It seems they do not learn!

A remarkable percentage of the population own a BTL property! In case Mr Brokenshire has not realised that is a significant number of voters that can make or break his Party! All PSL have a vote! They are likely to exercise that vote!

What HMG needs to do to save houses for tenants is to enter the real world!

The tax relief on Mortgage Payments needs to be restored to the Headline rate. Your top rate. That is the Base Line!

Then it enters the world of tax giveaways. If HMG seeks numbers then Capital Gains Tax (CGT) needs to be reduced to 10%! After that whatever the Government wants is surely negotiable by further giveaways. It is a matter between the individual PSL and the IR.

If HMG wants landlords to take disadvantaged tenants such as battered wives and zero hours workers then HMG must offer some further discount. I suggest one year further discount on CGT for each year a landlord agrees to take a tenant from a disadvantaged group!

Fergus Wilson