Tax breaks and less red tape demanded … but only for Build To Rent

The Association for Rental Living (ARL), consisting of finance houses and firms in Build To Rent, has sent an angry open letter to key government figures.

It wants immediate action to benefit the BTR sector following the pull out by John Lewis Partnership (JLP) last week.

A statement by JLP explained why it U-turned on its commitment to build thousands of BTR homes: @Our rental property ambition was based on a very different financial environment: one with more stable investment returns, lower borrowing costs, and more affordable costs to build homes.”

Now the Association for Rental Living stresses that without government intervention, “consequences are clear.”

By this it means “slower housing delivery, reduced rental supply, increased affordability pressure and greater reliance on short-term or lower-quality stock.”

It wants the Labour administration to help institutional investors by:

• Providing long-term policy stability and avoiding further cumulative regulatory layering without economic assessment;

• Designing a planning system that supports delivery, with clarity and speed including classifying housing as critical infrastructure, explicitly recognising Build to Rent within planning policy, mandating local plans to include specific policies on Build to Rent, and introducing mandatory targets for purpose-built rental homes within local authority housing targets;

• Devising a proportionate regulatory and tax framework that recognises the economics of large-scale rental with the reinstatement of Multiple Dwellings Relief for Stamp Duty Land Tax and the rationalisation of selective licensing regimes.

The ARL admits these policy changes “may take time” but wants Labour to publicly recognise and state support for institutional investment in BTR now.

It also demands that the government acknowledges “the viability challenges being faced in order to give investors greater confidence that the government is committed to making the UK a good place to invest.”

This article is taken from Landlord Today