Agency bosses reveal party conference housing wish list

Stamp Duty changes and planning reform should be high on the party conference season agenda, agency executives have suggested.

Leaders Roman Group (LRD) officials have outlined policies for the sales market that they would like politicians to discuss as party conference season begins.

Kevin Shaw,  national sales managing director for LRG, suggested support to reduce the cost of moving.

He said: “From a sales perspective, change needs to be focused around the cost of moving especially bearing in mind the reduced volume of transactions in the UK housing market.  Zoopla predicts around 1m transactions this year compared to nearly 1.5m in 2021.

“For house sales of £500,000-plus the current Stamp Duty thresholds are punitive and deter a lot of people from moving up market. This then prevents the freeing up smaller properties for either second-time buyers, first-time buyers or investors.

Tim Foreman, managing director of land and new homes said more needs to be done to address the serious delays and costs in the planning system, which would boost supply.

He said: “We need a clearer more straight-forward planning policy to enable developers to obtain planning in a much less time consuming and expensive process. 

“It would be helpful to have firm deadlines in place for local authorities’ planning decision-making and a clear and reasonable set of guidelines and criteria for developers and planning consultants to provide a more direct route to planning consent. New housing is already in short supply and with the recent turmoil in the market and planning process it is only going to get far worse – some developers are reducing their development starts and choosing not to buy land due to the current mess.
 
“Once this is sorted and developers know what is required of them and can get on with building houses again. Then, in light of the recent interest rate rises we could really do with some Government help with buying schemes – something like Help to Buy and/or Stamp Duty assistance to help get the market going again.

Additionally, Daniel Gale, head of auctions at LRG brand First For Auctions, suggested scrapping inheritance tax.

He said: “Taxing people’s estates on death is wrong. I regularly see the pressures of families dealing with an estate and a tax man chasing for money with a limited timeframe. 

“People are taxed on the income which buys the property, the fixtures within it and refurbishment costs. Also income if the property is let. With property prices varying considerably across the country, Inheritance Tax is grossly unfair and regressive, while also delaying movement in the property market.”