Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to introduce the Autumn 2024 Budget tomorrow (Picture: Getty)
For months, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned that the Autumn Budget is likely to be ‘painful’, and that ‘things will get worse before we get better’ for the UK economy.
On October 30 Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her first ever Budget, which is expected to include a number of commitments on housing specifically, as well as measures on national insurance, minimum wage, and fuel duty.
Metro chatted to a property expert about what we can expect, from stamp duty updates to measures on social housing and capital gains tax.
What is Labour likely to address on housing in the Autumn 2024 Budget?
Stamp duty
The first is on stamp duty – AKA, the tax paid by the homeowner when purchasing houses, flats and other land and buildings over a certain threshold. At present, no stamp duty is required on anything worth up to £250,000. First-time buyers are exempt up to £425,000.
However, as Marc von Grundherr, Director of Benham and Reeves, tells Metro, the relief is set to end in March 2025, with stamp duty ‘reverting back to previous thresholds, which would see existing homeowners liable on purchases over £125,000.’
The relief on stamp duty was always intended to be temporary, and was first introduced as the Stamp Duty Land Tax (Relief) Bill on October 24, 2022. It was given Royal Assent and passed as an Act on February 8, 2023.
Elsewhere, first-time buyers would be expected to pay the tax on any property or land valued over £300,000 – which is a considerable amount, considering that in London alone the average property value comes in at £688,856, according to statistics from Zoopla. That’s more than £300,000 over the threshold.
The stamp duty relief is currently set to end in March 2024 (Picture: Getty)
But as Marc notes, the price of an average home often falls below the £300,000 limit.
‘The average existing homebuyer would see an additional cost when purchasing over £125,000, and if purchasing over £250,000, they would see the maximum increase of £2,500 in stamp duty charged,’ Marc explains.
‘There have been rumours that the government plans to extend the current relief beyond March of next year, but unfortunately it looks as though this will only apply to first-time buyers.’
Renters’ Rights Bill
It’s not just homeowners that are expected to be impacted by the Budget: there will likely be changes in the world of renting, too.
As Marc explains, we’ve already seen a ‘raft of changes’ proposed through the Renters’ Rights Bill – and so there doesn’t appear to be ‘any direct help’ expected for renters specifically tomorrow.
In its current form, the Bill is expected to eradicate fixed-term tenancies, abolish section 21 evictions, give tenants more rights to request a pet in the property, and make it illegal for both landlords and agents to discriminate against tenants receiving benefits or with children, amongst other things.
Capital gains tax increases
Elsewhere, it’s not all positive news for …read more
Source:: Metro
