Sunak’s stamp duty cut was a mistake, economists say

[highcontrast]

Sunak’s stamp duty cut was a mistake, economists say

 

"Chancellor’s tax break helped push prices up beyond any tax savings for buyers"

You don't say!!! Who'd have thought that?

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sunak-stamp-duty-economy-house-prices-b1892883.html

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by highcontrast

[Eddie_George]

No shit!

[Former postman]

Obvious article is obvious

[highcontrast]

It seems we on HPC are smarter and have more foresight than so called economists and the financial press then. 

Why are these people so useless? 

[GeneCernan]

It wasn't a mistake, it did exactly what it was intended to do.

Comments are interesting though, cat certainly out of the bag.

Edited July 30, 2021 by GeneCernan

[MonsieurCopperCrutch]

2 minutes ago, highcontrast said:

It seems we on HPC are smarter and have more foresight than so called economists and the financial press then. 

Why are these people so useless? 

Are they useless or are they lining their own pockets or doing someone else's bidding?

Government by Landlord

By

Solomon Hughes

Boris Johnson's government is dominated by landlords, many of whom own multiple properties and make a fortune from rent. It isn't a fluke that they support policies which harm tenants – it's class politics.

Private tenants are among the most vulnerable to the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, so why are they getting such minimal protection when compared to mortgage-holders?

One reason is that we have a system in Britain which amounts to government by landlord, with around a quarter of all ministers – including Boris Johnson – collecting rent. These ministers themselves answer to a parliament where around a fifth of MPs are landlords.

It’s not possible to be completely precise about how many landlords there are in the UK: you need a licence to own a TV or drive a car, but there is no UK-wide scheme to licence landlords, which means no official tally.

However, the latest figures from the Inland Revenue show around 2.7 million people get income from property, suggesting roughly 5%, or one in 20 adults are landlords. That’s a large and growing figure, but even so landlords are enormously over-represented in Westminster. Five times as many ministers and four times as many MPs are landlords as the general population. 

MPs must reveal if they collect more than £10,000 per year in rent. I checked the records of all 650 MPs in the current parliament and found 110 MPs (17%) are landlords. In most cases this means renting out houses and flats. Some MPs also collecting rent from farms, shops and other commercial premises. 

The over-representation of landlords is more intense among Conservative MPs: 87 out of 365 Tory MPs (24%) are landlords. 45 of those Tory MPs (15%), including Boris Johnson, rent out more than one property. This puts the Tories in a league of their own.

For the other parties, 2 of 11 Lib Dem MPs (18%), 4 of 47 SNP MPs (9%) and 17 of 202 Labour MPs (8%) are landlords. But let’s be clear: MPs of all parties are still more likely to be landlords than the electorate.

Worryingly, perhaps, given the party’s recent position on rent write-offs, 9 of the 17 Labour MPs who are landlords now have seats in the Shadow Cabinet.

As is the case in general, the Tory government itself is even more landlord-heavy. Boris Johnson gets a 50% share of the rent from one London “residential property.” The Prime Minister also collects rent from his 20% share of a house in Somerset.

He listed this interest on the MPs’ register a year late, causing the Commons Standards Committee to criticise him for “an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the house” last April.

The Landlord Cabinet

Johnson is far from alone as a landlord-minister.

Health Minister Jo Churchill and her husband rent out a house in Newark and one house and three flats in Grantham. Foreign Office Minister Nigel Adams and his wife rent out two residential properties in York, one in Leeds, and a mixed “commercial and residential property” in Selby.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow collects rent from two houses in Somerset (one jointly owned by her sister) along with shares of rent from a commercial building, and one common but ambiguous description in filings: “agricultural land.”

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is a landlord with two cottages who also owns agricultural land and a salmon fishery in Dumfries and Galloway. Justice Minister Alex Chalk gets rent money from a flat in Shepherd’s Bush and a third share of rent from a Gloucester cottage and a French flat.

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi collects rent from a “residential property” as well as land in Warwickshire and a house in London. Until January 2020 he also got rent from three London buy-to-let flats.

Defence Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin has procured for himself a London flat, and two “residential properties” in Buckinghamshire and Pembrokeshire, all of which are rented out. Education Minister Gillian Keegan and her husband are landlords of a flat in London and a vivienda in Madrid.

Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg rents out a London residential property and a farmhouse, farm buildings and land in Somerset. Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins and Justice Minister Lucy Fraser both rent out London houses as well.

Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace , Attorney General Suella Braverman, Media Minister John Whittingdale each rent out a London Flat.

Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly and his wife are landlords of a Lewisham house. Children’s Minister Vicky Ford and her husband are landlords of a house in Cambridgeshire.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis and his wife rent out a house in Essex. Environment Secretary George Eustice and Treasury Minister John Glen both rented out flats in London until they stopped being landlords in 2019.

The title of this article, government by landlord, is no exaggeration.

Cat and Mouse Game

It is, of course, conceivable that a government comprised of landlords would act against its own interests and set favourable policies for tenants. But it would be acting against its interests – and in the coronavirus crisis, as in the housing crisis that preceded it, this one shows no signs of doing so.

Even before the pandemic, half of all renters were only one paycheck away from losing their homes – with no savings to fall back on. While landlords spent just 19% of their income on mortgages, private renters gave on average 46% of theirs to their landlord when Housing Benefit was excluded.

The situation has likely gotten worse since March – renters are 40% more likely to be in workplaces shut down by the crisis. And the end of the moratorium on evictions is now only weeks away, yet the government has announced no extension.

In his famous 1944 speech known as ‘Mouseland,’ Canadian politician Tommy Douglas talked about a world where mice would go to the polls every four years to elect a government of big black cats. When they introduced policies that suited cats and not mice, the mice elected white cats instead. But that did little good.

“You see, my friends,” he told his audience, “the trouble wasn’t with the colour of the cats, the trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats they naturally looked after cats instead of mice.

“Presently, there came along one little mouse who had an idea. He said to the other mice, ‘look fellas, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don’t we elect a government made up of mice?’

“Oh, they said, he’s a Bolshevik! Lock him up!”

Parliament’s Top Landlords

MPs must register any rent above £10,000 per year, but don’t have to say how much they collect. They do have to say how many properties they rent out. By that measure parliament’s top landlords are:

• Paul Howell (Sedgefield, Conservative) with 16 properties, comprising nine houses in Darlington, five houses and two flats in Durham.

• Fiona Bruce (Congleton, Conservative) with 10 properties, comprising four residential and five commercial properties in Warrington and one commercial property in Knutsford.

• Nick Fletcher (Don Valley, Conservative) with 11 properties, comprising six houses, four flats and one commercial property in South Yorkshire.

• Robert Goodwill (Scarborough, Conservative) with 9 properties, comprising four houses in Teesside, a residential property in North Yorkshire, a flat in London, a farm and two industrial units in Yorkshire.

• Jeremy Hunt (South West Surrey, Conservative) with 9 properties, comprising seven Southampton apartments and shares in both a holiday house in Italy and a London office building.

• Marco Longhi (Dudley North, Conservative) who rents out 9 houses in Walsall.

[Greater Fool]

Rishi should have stuck to serving up burger and chips.

[Greater Fool]

6 minutes ago, GeneCernan said:

It wasn't a mistake, it did exactly what it was intended to do.

Sunak had no idea what it was going to do, it was a knee jerk reaction.

[Greater Fool]

11 minutes ago, highcontrast said:

It seems we on HPC are smarter and have more foresight than so called economists and the financial press then. 

Why are these people so useless? 

Rishi should have started a thread on HPC to find out what would have happened following the SDLC cut, then ignored the replys of course.

[highcontrast]

10 minutes ago, GeneCernan said:

It wasn't a mistake, it did exactly what it was intended to do.

I agree. Desperate to prop up the market. But why could we see this but the so called experts only realise long after the event. I guess the media had there vested interests too?

 

[Patfig]

31 minutes ago, Postman said:

Obvious article is obvious

As obvious as a wig

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

Seems kind of obvious the market didn't actually need it.

[MonsieurCopperCrutch]

4 minutes ago, highcontrast said:

I agree. Desperate to prop up the market. But why could we see this but the so called experts only realise long after the event. I guess the media had there vested interests too?

 

I'm not sure anyone on here said that prices were going to rise over 10% in 12 months. I certainly didn't. All I remember seeing were 'I told you so' threads.

[msi]

What next?  Ursine defecation found in woodland.

 

My only hope is that it dampens the chance of any further props

[“Nasty Piece of work”]

1 hour ago, highcontrast said:

I guess the media had there vested interests too?

 

Being right doesn’t make money, staying in power does.

[nothernsoul]

It was a disgraceful policy. During a pandemic make a tax cut that favours the better off members of society, removing the one existing tax(however flawed)on an overinflated, undertaxed asset. Reinforces the message very clearly. Not just measures to prevent individuals losing their homes, no, that isn't enough. Even under unprecedented national crisis, house price values cannot be allowed to fall. 

[Roman Roady]

2 words spring to mind: NIGEL LAWSON

[nothernsoul]

There is a significant minority in society who would benefit from a fall in residential property prices. Don't know what that percentage is, but it clearly exists. However, not only is that group in a minority, it is disparate, the less powerful, unclear of their interests. 

In contrast to that, you have larger, more powerful group, who clearly know their interests. Even without landlord and vested interests within parliament, which must have some effect, politicians would appease the homeowners anyway. It isn't vested interest, homeowners have now become a class.

[Society of fools]

2 hours ago, Tiger131 said:

Rishi should have started a thread on HPC to find out what would have happened following the SDLC cut, then ignored the replys of course

Watch out for Rishi's next clever idea on HPC. 

The thread will be called " What other props can the government possibly implement even if house prices start dropping apparently irreversibly ? What could possibly save the Housing situation even if there were sky high interest rates, a falling currency, and people leaving Britain ? " 

The best ideas will be put to cabinet and implemented forthwith. 

[LetsBuild]

If I remember correctly Rishi wanted it to run from Nov 2020 till March 2021. Given what was known then it probably did sound like a nice little afterburner for the market that looked like it might tank over winter.

However either by incompetence or deliberately it was leaked and Rishi was forced to go in prematurely as not to stall the marked until November and then inevitably he was then forced to extended it in March. The cut for the original 6 months might have been just about right in my opinion, but clearly it got out of hand and at least 9 months longer than it should have.

[zugzwang]

5 hours ago, MonsieurCopperCrutch said:

Are they useless or are they lining their own pockets or doing someone else's bidding?

Government by Landlord

By

Solomon Hughes

Boris Johnson's government is dominated by landlords, many of whom own multiple properties and make a fortune from rent. It isn't a fluke that they support policies which harm tenants – it's class politics.

Private tenants are among the most vulnerable to the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, so why are they getting such minimal protection when compared to mortgage-holders?

One reason is that we have a system in Britain which amounts to government by landlord, with around a quarter of all ministers – including Boris Johnson – collecting rent. These ministers themselves answer to a parliament where around a fifth of MPs are landlords.

It’s not possible to be completely precise about how many landlords there are in the UK: you need a licence to own a TV or drive a car, but there is no UK-wide scheme to licence landlords, which means no official tally.

However, the latest figures from the Inland Revenue show around 2.7 million people get income from property, suggesting roughly 5%, or one in 20 adults are landlords. That’s a large and growing figure, but even so landlords are enormously over-represented in Westminster. Five times as many ministers and four times as many MPs are landlords as the general population. 

MPs must reveal if they collect more than £10,000 per year in rent. I checked the records of all 650 MPs in the current parliament and found 110 MPs (17%) are landlords. In most cases this means renting out houses and flats. Some MPs also collecting rent from farms, shops and other commercial premises. 

The over-representation of landlords is more intense among Conservative MPs: 87 out of 365 Tory MPs (24%) are landlords. 45 of those Tory MPs (15%), including Boris Johnson, rent out more than one property. This puts the Tories in a league of their own.

For the other parties, 2 of 11 Lib Dem MPs (18%), 4 of 47 SNP MPs (9%) and 17 of 202 Labour MPs (8%) are landlords. But let’s be clear: MPs of all parties are still more likely to be landlords than the electorate.

Worryingly, perhaps, given the party’s recent position on rent write-offs, 9 of the 17 Labour MPs who are landlords now have seats in the Shadow Cabinet.

As is the case in general, the Tory government itself is even more landlord-heavy. Boris Johnson gets a 50% share of the rent from one London “residential property.” The Prime Minister also collects rent from his 20% share of a house in Somerset.

He listed this interest on the MPs’ register a year late, causing the Commons Standards Committee to criticise him for “an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the house” last April.

The Landlord Cabinet

Johnson is far from alone as a landlord-minister.

Health Minister Jo Churchill and her husband rent out a house in Newark and one house and three flats in Grantham. Foreign Office Minister Nigel Adams and his wife rent out two residential properties in York, one in Leeds, and a mixed “commercial and residential property” in Selby.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow collects rent from two houses in Somerset (one jointly owned by her sister) along with shares of rent from a commercial building, and one common but ambiguous description in filings: “agricultural land.”

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is a landlord with two cottages who also owns agricultural land and a salmon fishery in Dumfries and Galloway. Justice Minister Alex Chalk gets rent money from a flat in Shepherd’s Bush and a third share of rent from a Gloucester cottage and a French flat.

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi collects rent from a “residential property” as well as land in Warwickshire and a house in London. Until January 2020 he also got rent from three London buy-to-let flats.

Defence Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin has procured for himself a London flat, and two “residential properties” in Buckinghamshire and Pembrokeshire, all of which are rented out. Education Minister Gillian Keegan and her husband are landlords of a flat in London and a vivienda in Madrid.

Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg rents out a London residential property and a farmhouse, farm buildings and land in Somerset. Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins and Justice Minister Lucy Fraser both rent out London houses as well.

Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace , Attorney General Suella Braverman, Media Minister John Whittingdale each rent out a London Flat.

Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly and his wife are landlords of a Lewisham house. Children’s Minister Vicky Ford and her husband are landlords of a house in Cambridgeshire.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis and his wife rent out a house in Essex. Environment Secretary George Eustice and Treasury Minister John Glen both rented out flats in London until they stopped being landlords in 2019.

The title of this article, government by landlord, is no exaggeration.

Cat and Mouse Game

It is, of course, conceivable that a government comprised of landlords would act against its own interests and set favourable policies for tenants. But it would be acting against its interests – and in the coronavirus crisis, as in the housing crisis that preceded it, this one shows no signs of doing so.

Even before the pandemic, half of all renters were only one paycheck away from losing their homes – with no savings to fall back on. While landlords spent just 19% of their income on mortgages, private renters gave on average 46% of theirs to their landlord when Housing Benefit was excluded.

The situation has likely gotten worse since March – renters are 40% more likely to be in workplaces shut down by the crisis. And the end of the moratorium on evictions is now only weeks away, yet the government has announced no extension.

In his famous 1944 speech known as ‘Mouseland,’ Canadian politician Tommy Douglas talked about a world where mice would go to the polls every four years to elect a government of big black cats. When they introduced policies that suited cats and not mice, the mice elected white cats instead. But that did little good.

“You see, my friends,” he told his audience, “the trouble wasn’t with the colour of the cats, the trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats they naturally looked after cats instead of mice.

“Presently, there came along one little mouse who had an idea. He said to the other mice, ‘look fellas, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don’t we elect a government made up of mice?’

“Oh, they said, he’s a Bolshevik! Lock him up!”

Parliament’s Top Landlords

MPs must register any rent above £10,000 per year, but don’t have to say how much they collect. They do have to say how many properties they rent out. By that measure parliament’s top landlords are:

• Paul Howell (Sedgefield, Conservative) with 16 properties, comprising nine houses in Darlington, five houses and two flats in Durham.

• Fiona Bruce (Congleton, Conservative) with 10 properties, comprising four residential and five commercial properties in Warrington and one commercial property in Knutsford.

• Nick Fletcher (Don Valley, Conservative) with 11 properties, comprising six houses, four flats and one commercial property in South Yorkshire.

• Robert Goodwill (Scarborough, Conservative) with 9 properties, comprising four houses in Teesside, a residential property in North Yorkshire, a flat in London, a farm and two industrial units in Yorkshire.

• Jeremy Hunt (South West Surrey, Conservative) with 9 properties, comprising seven Southampton apartments and shares in both a holiday house in Italy and a London office building.

• Marco Longhi (Dudley North, Conservative) who rents out 9 houses in Walsall.

 

That's fantastic, MCC!

Email a copy to everyone you know. 🤙

[Fromage Frais]

6 hours ago, GeneCernan said:

It wasn't a mistake, it did exactly what it was intended to do.

Comments are interesting though, cat certainly out of the bag.

Yep

Rishi help us..... we might have to discount prices quick

I got your back keep the donations coming!

The only possible silver lining is that its going to get shit so this was a window doled out to mates so they can get out/incorporate their BTLS before the market turns.

Just such a waste of time  overall as it looks like it has gummed up the market in my area and as there has been very little for sale for months now I do not see how the large number of sales has actually happened unless a huge chunk is incorporating personally helpd BTL assets

[Fromage Frais]

ooooooh?  Are prices looking dicey and these good folk demanding the next props?

Elite Tory donors club holds secret meetings with Johnson and Sunak

https://www.ft.com/content/c5737fbb-2893-4a5a-be5e-965785f1a37b

 

[Will!]

5 hours ago, Roman Roady said:

2 words spring to mind: NIGEL LAWSON

Just bring MIRAS back and be done with it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage_interest_relief_at_source

[Kosmin]

9 hours ago, highcontrast said:

I agree. Desperate to prop up the market. But why could we see this but the so called experts only realise long after the event. I guess the media had there vested interests too?

I doubt anyone predicted price rises. Economists understood that a stamp duty cut would lead to higher prices than otherwise. But they probably expected significant price decreases due to the pandemic. Maybe they thought prices might fall 10% if SDLT was unchanged, but wouldn't fall if there was a SDLT holiday.

9 hours ago, MonsieurCopperCrutch said:

Are they useless or are they lining their own pockets or doing someone else's bidding?

They're multi-tasking!