Government ‘Should Overhaul’ Stamp Duty To Boost Housing Market

The government should slash stamp duty to help boost housebuilding and encourage people to buy their own homes, a new report has stated. Stamp duty is the second most unpopular UK levy behind inheritance tax, and a gradual rise in rates has meant the average buyer in England pays £2,300 when they buy a property. Think tank the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) branded stamp duty a “tax on mobility and aspiration” and urged the government to raise the threshold from £125,000 to £500,000. The report proposed that a four per cent levy be charged on properties between £500,000 and £1m, and five per cent on anything higher. Read more on the CITY AM website.

https://www.cityam.com/government-should-overhaul-stamp-duty-to-boost-housing-market/

Social Housing Report Calls For Massive Overhaul Of Tenants’ Rights

Sweeping new powers must be given to social tenants as part of an overhaul needed to ensure a Grenfell-style disaster never happens again according to a powerful cross-party commission. It found that social tenants are being failed by a system that leaves them waiting an average of eight months before their complaints are investigated, even when their safety could be at risk. The calls for a once-in-a-generation rethink of tenants’ rights come from the Social Housing Commission, a year-long investigation brought together by the charity Shelter following the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/05/tenants-rights-massive-overhaul-social-housing-commission-grenfell

Anti-Poverty Coalition Calls For Overhaul Of Universal Credit

Church leaders and food banks have called for an overhaul of universal credit to halt a surge in vulnerable claimants being pushed into destitution, hunger and debt when they move on to the benefit. End Hunger UK, a coalition of 73 poverty charities and faith groups, said excessive payment delays, common administrative errors and lack of support for claimants struggling to navigate the online-only system was driving up use of food banks. It called for a dramatic reduction in the time claimants must wait for a first payment from a minimum of five weeks to just two weeks, saying the long wait was financially crippling for claimants who had no savings to fall back on. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/11/anti-poverty-coalition-calls-for-overhaul-of-universal-credit

Capital Gains Tax On All Homes Needed

The government needs to implement a root-and-branch overhaul of the way housing is taxed and regulated to address the ‘crisis’ facing young people as they struggle to buy or rent property, a new book proposes. In addition to greatly increasing the supply of social housing, ministers should introduce a capital gains tax on the sale of all homes, carry out long-overdue reforms to council tax so that owners of large houses pay more, and regulate the rental sector much more actively. These are central arguments of ‘The Crisis for Young People: Generational Inequalities in Education, Work, Housing and Welfare’, a new book by professor Andy Green of UCL Institute of Education (IOE). Read more on 24housing.