June Budget -Good News for Home Buyers

 

It was said that this emergency budget was going to be Osborne’s Big Bang - that he wanted to get the bad stuff over and done with in one quick hit rather than increase taxes and cuts in public sector over weeks and months.  We expected the worst – but I am not entirely sure it was as terrible as most of us had feared. 

Yes we’re all affected – but it could have been worse.  VAT is going up but so is the personal tax allowance so it wasn’t all bad news.

Certainly the Government seems willing to help us to protect our biggest asset as a nation – our homes. There was no mention of pulling the rug from under the feet of first time buyers by scrapping Home Buy Direct and no mention of hiking stamp duty up either.   

Let’s not forget that the country is on the brink of a housing shortfall crisis and meddling with anything that affected the property market would have been a disaster for the country long term.  I am pleased that the coalition government seemed to accept this and didn’t do anything that would further risk the housing supply. 

We are pleased that the Government supports an increase in house building and sustainable developments but are concerned that if localism is to work they must ensure that there is a clear interim guidance in place quickly until the Planning system has been changed. This will allow the housing supply to continue until the new housing policy is in operation and then for localism to truly work the government must ensure that each local authority maintains a robust 5 year housing land supply.

Sue Warwick national sales and marketing director Miller Homes.