Budget benefit changes welcome but not enough say Landlords

Responding to the announcement in the Budget that the Universal Credit taper will be cut from 63 to 55 per cent from 1^st December 2021, Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said:

“Today’s announcement is welcome news for those private tenants who have struggled to afford their rents throughout the pandemic, despite private rents falling in real terms. However it does not undo the damage that previous decisions to freeze housing benefit rates in cash terms will cause. It is simply bizarre to have a system in which support for housing costs will no longer track market rents. The Chancellor needs to undo this unjust policy as matter of urgency.”

Other key announcements in the Budget affecting private landlords which the NRLA welcomes include:

• The Government has pledged to bring forward exemptions to the Shared Accommodation Rate (which limits housing benefit support for single people under 35 to a room in a shared house) for victims of domestic abuse and victims of modern slavery, from October 2023 to October 2022. These vulnerable claimants will be able to claim the higher 1-bedroom self-contained Local Housing Allowance rate.
• From 27th October 2021 the deadline for residents to report and pay Capital Gains Tax after selling UK residential property will increase from 30 days after the completion date to 60 days.
• As announced on 23rd September 2021, the Government will give sole traders and landlords, with income over £10,000, an extra year to prepare for Making Tax Digital (MTD). MTD for Income Tax Self-Assessment (ITSA) will now be introduced from 6th April 2024.