Sometimes it’s hard to come up with a topic for this weekly opinion piece – not this week.
It’s been a surreal one, with the Budget announcement coming in the middle of the global pandemic of COVID-19 and after an emergency 0.50% base rate cut.
In terms of housing there were few surprises, though the measures seem fairly sensible.
Extending the Affordable Homes Programme makes sense, while the £1bn Grenfell building safety fund comes better late than never.
The government also went ahead with the 2% stamp duty premium on non-UK residents.
This is probably intended to favour UK buyers over foreign investors in London, though I’m a little worried it could weigh too heavily on the Prime space. The top end of the market is already extensively taxed and if I was a policymaker I would sooner tax empty homes rather than penalise people based on where they were born.
The Budget’s focus on transport and digital connectivity up and down the UK should be lauded however, given that the UK needs to create more prosperity away from London and the South East.
And I’m curious, though not getting carried away about, the potential impact of the government’s upcoming planning reforms on housebuilding.
Back to coronavirus, it seems likely economic activity isn’t going to be the same for a couple of months with this going on.
Though the Bank of England is pumping money into the economy in the form of business loans you worry people staying indoors could force at-risk businesses into financial difficulty. Hopefully companies can do enough and come out the other side but this is going to be a difficult time for almost everyone, unless you make your living as a video game streamer on Twitch.tv
Ultimately the virus is going to affect many sectors, from the arts to sport to financial services, and we’re just going to have to try and make the best of it.
Ryan Bembridge, Editor, PropertyWire
