Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Just wanted to say well done and thanks to Mark for meeting with the treasury officials yesterday. I thought it was encouraging that you reported they took copious notes... I am sure you have given some of the examples where tax will be paid on losses etc, which is crazy, and also possibly mentioned only applying the new rules to new purchases from 2017 ? Anyway, as they seem to have listened, hopefully a lot of that will be fed back and give impetus to a policy change in the near future. I am continuing to email friends and colleagues with the petition and info sheet and asking them to disseminate further.

Yes, well done to Mark. You did an excellent job and we are all grateful to you - especially as you're not taking any flannel.
I think we should now clarify our objectives over the next few days for the next stage of our campaign. We've atarted and continue to promote the petition, we've had the Treasury meeting, we're submitting reports for the Public Committee and these will probably all be in by the end of next week, we're sending in FOIs, we will hopefully be in the newspapers soon.
So maybe we should have a brainstorm here of ideas for campaigning? Some people are good at writing letters, some are confident to see their MPs face-to-face, some might manage to get their position profiled in a local or national newspaper. Answering all emails we receive that promote the GO's warped version of reality is good. Maybe some people could write to the letters pages of newspapers? - any volunteers for writing a short, snappy template here, which we can amend and send? It's all part of the consciousness-raising - the little ripples that will turn the tide (not sure if that makes sense!). Anyway, ideas here - and, as with all brainstorming, silly ideas are especially welcome (because they can lead to something good)

I've also just heard back from the MD of my local Estate Agent Group, who look after around eight of my properties :
Hi Ian,

Thank you for the information. I agree that it is a bit of a worry and is likely to reshape the buy to let market over the next 5 years or so. The links will be useful so thanks for passing it on.

Best wishes,

Reply to the comment left by "Ian Simpson" at "21/08/2015 - 09:40":

Nice one Ian.

Just had a letter back from my MP. He'd sent my first communication to David Gauke who has responded with the usual twaddle about 1 in 5 Landlords and it being a fairer tax system. I shall hit my MP again later today with the fact that, as yet, nobody has been able to prove why it is 1 in 5 LL's.

Reply to the comment left by "John McKay" at "21/08/2015 - 10:12":

Did you give him all the examples where taxes will be levied on zero profits and even on losses...?

Reply to the comment left by "Ian Simpson" at "21/08/2015 - 11:09":

No, I wrote to him in the early days but he's certainly going to be getting them later along with a question as to why it's OK to rob pensions and I'm going to challenge him personally to prove the 1 in 5.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "21/08/2015 - 09:06":

Hi Ros
As regards brainstorming - I have been doing research into the amount of Mortgage held by BTL borrowers.
An article in the Telegraph dated 22-05-2015 written by Richard Dyson and reported by The Council of Mortgage Lenders - states that there is £200 billion currently outstanding Mortgage Debt held by BTL borrowers - with very nice graph to show this.
If the average BTL Mortgage is £150,000 - then £200 billion divided by £150,000 =
1,333,333 ie 1.33 million households will be affected by this new proposal.
Its not only the number of Landlords who will be affected - but also the number of Households. Assuming each Household had 2 tenants - means 2.66 million Tenants will be affected.
This new proposal means the Landlord is effectively being taxed on his Financial Costs with 20% given back as "relief". This will cause a problem for all Landlords with Mortgages - as the sums will no longer add up. The normal rule of business
Rental income - Costs = Profits is no longer applicable.
When the Landlord has a problem - this means there is also a problem for the 1.33
million Households affected ie approx. 2.66 million Tenants who will be made homeless. This will have a catastrophic effect on peoples lives and a destabilising effect on the Housing Market.
I don't know how HMRC can say this proposal will have little or no affect on Landlords or Tenants!! Clearly, no proper research was done for the Impact study.

Ill-designed European Union risks fixed-rate mortgage lending in the UK

http://www.cityam.com/222547/ill-designed-european-union-regulation-risks-hurting-fixed-rate-mortgage-lending

best line is the last line :
"In his Mansion House speech on 10 June, the chancellor talked about the issue of ill-designed EU regulation. This has to be a prime example which can and must be changed."

Reply to the comment left by "KATHY MILLER" at "20/08/2015 - 23:43":

Hi Kathy

I don’t know. Maybe the statistics for BTL purchases and owner-occupier purchases between mid-2006 and mid-2007 are already available somewhere.