Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

I've sent it to Chris Chope, my MP, and all the Treasury Select committee Members.

Mr Steve Baker MP Conservative
Bill Esterson MP Labour
Mark Garnier MP Conservative
Helen Goodman MP Labour
Stephen Hammond MP Conservative
George Kerevan MP Scottish National Party
John Mann MP Labour
Chris Philp MP Conservative
Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg MP Conservative
Wes Streeting MP Labour
Rt Hon Andrew Tyrie MP Conservative

Reply to the comment left by "Lisa Stux" at "07/09/2015 - 00:55":

That's fantastic Lisa. Thanks so much for doing that - I was just going to have to get on to it now - and it would have taken me quite a while, I know.

Any other volunteers for sending the letter to the Business Ministers now? Anna Soubry, Sajid Javid, Brandon Lewis, Nick Boles et al? If you look at the website of Cabinet Ministers you can double-check all the ones who are relevant. If someone can do this, can they let me know asap and then I won't do it. This is the link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers

We should also all send it to George Osborne (address on same link) - so that a pile of emails about it arrive at his office. It all helps. I'm going to send one to him now.

Can others all contact your MPs with the letter today (or your own letter if you prefer - I think it's good to include some personal details of what you will need to do with your houses in their constituency for instance, if this goes through), urging them to support us in the debate tomorrow? We need at least one MP who pipes up and states how mad this is. There was one especially supportive Conservative MP last week - I forget now what his name was. He should really be written to.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "07/09/2015 - 08:44":

I've sent it to GO, but I've got to go out til this evening.
Please, anyone with some time....contact your MPs and the Business Ministers today.

Here is another link to find their names:

http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

Email sent to all of the Treasury Committee as well as the Business Secretary.

Hi All, New member here. Where can i find a link to the email some of you have sent to your MP's etc?

Thanks
D

Just sent the letter to my local MP, Andrew Murrison, and to the MP where my properties are located, Ben Howlett, Bath.

Reply to the comment left by "Maharaja " at "07/09/2015 - 12:02":

Here is the letter:

Dear...

I am writing to you with regard to the Finance Bill, which is to be debated in Parliament tomorrow. As a landlord, I have been shocked at this sudden and brutal attack against our businesses and am hoping that you can help to oppose this draconian and punitive tax - which is not only going to hit landlords, but also a vast number of the poorest in society. For the sake of brevity I am going to refer you to a few articles which summarise many of the issues and would just ask that you take a look and then, if possible, speak out against this 'Clause 24,' which aims to tax private landlords regardless of whether they make a profit and even to tax them on a loss - a bizarre and grossly unfair idea, that I can hardly believe has been seriously suggested in an advanced country such as the UK. A set of articles can be found here:

Death of buy-to-let: landlords wake up to Osborne's 150pc tax

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Death of buy-to-let: landlords wake up to Osborne's 150p...
Buy-to-let investors paying more than 100pc of their profits in tax are already selling up

View on http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Preview by Yahoo

I am also pleased to say that the Telegraph has continued the campaign over the weekend. The media is generally so anti-landlord, that it is a relief for us to have one voice of reason out there.

I've pasted the link here to the article.

'I own 75 buy-to-let properties but I haven't deprived other buyers'

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'I own 75 buy-to-let properties but I haven't deprived o...
As investors digest George Osborne’s surprise new tax on buy-to-let, questions emerge about the wider impact on housing and rents

View on http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Preview by Yahoo

The case studies in it of portfolio landlords are particularly interesting and show how the Government's policy will kill off buy-to-let mortgages and the businesses of landlords who provide a critical role supporting the housing needs of the UK. The impact of the policy will also include stopping expansion of the housing stock just as more housing is needed, as no landlords dependent on finance will build or renovate old housing now to bring it back into use (a model I have used for years).

The justification by George Osborne for this attack on landlords suggested he would be creating a 'level playing field.' This has since been conclusively proven to be wrong. If you have time, it would be worth you looking at this other link which shows that there is a very uneven playing field, but that it goes in the opposite direction. Landlords would actually love a level playing field with owner-occupiers as we would have to pay no tax on our rental income or any CGT when we sell houses which have increased in value. There are many other advantages too of being an owner-occupier; not just tax advantages.

A Level Playing Field Between Homeowners and Landlords | Property118.com

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A Level Playing Field Between Homeowners and Landlords...
Property118 Forum for Private Landlords

View on http://www.property118.com

Preview by Yahoo

Apart from this 'turnover tax' being wrong in principle, it is also wrong to make it retrospective - applying it to properties that were bought years ago under the current tax regime. The Treasury and the Chancellor keep reiterating the idea that they are giving us 4 years to get ourselves organised - when in fact it's supposed to be starting in just over 18 months' time. In any case, the only realistic options we have are to put up rents (which won't be enough to compensate for many), to sell or to go bankrupt. What a great set of choices they're giving us. And why? Are we drug dealers? Do we sell alcohol that makes people ill? No. We provide rented accommodation.

Many of our tenants are going to be have a very nasty shock when their rents go up and/or they are given their notice. A report has shown that 20% of landlords are likely to leave the rental business as a direct result of this measure and no-one knows how many properties these 20% own, so we are likely to be looking at massive chaos in the private rental sector.

The Government through this tax states that it is favouring owner-occupiers, but what about tenants? Tenants have been ignored and don't even figure in their impact assessment. Many of these people are going to be devastated to lose their homes. But this is inevitable as how can we, as landlords, pay out of our own pockets indefinitely for people to live in our houses, as we will have to do when interest rates rise and we are being taxed on a loss? (many of us can handle interest rate rises per se - just not when our costs suddenly appear as our 'income,' on which we are to be taxed). Housing Associations may be able to pay for people to live in their houses, operate at a loss and get bailed out at some point - and the staff still receive their salaries at the end of the month - but private landlords can't, when we rely on the 'profit' for our living.

If you have time to read up further on the complex issues involved, I give you another link to an article which explains more about what is so wrong about this idea.

Restricting finance cost relief for individual landlords

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Restricting finance cost relief for individual landlords
Property118 Forum for Private Landlords

View on http://www.property118.com

Preview by Yahoo

Anyway, I hope you can support us with this and persuade some of your colleagues to follow suit. We need to have some people speaking in the Commons who are not repeating nonsense about 'generous tax relief' and hitting 'the wealthiest landlords' (when it is in fact hitting the landlords who owe the most and leaving the wealthiest landlords, who don't have mortgages, untouched).

Yours sincerely

Reply to the comment left by "Maharaja " at "07/09/2015 - 12:02":

Hi Maharaja

Welcome to Property118.

You can read the letters I've sent to my MP via this link >>> http://www.property118.com/category/open-letter-to-mp/

Feel free to use any of my text in your letters

To find the contact details of your MP and local Councillors please see >>> https://www.writetothem.com/
.

I have sent it to various members of the Cabinet. Others may also like to pick and choose a few of them to send it to. I make a few adjustments each time - in addition to putting in their names, obviously, if I write to someone responsible for justice, I get in the word 'injustice' in the title of the email; if they're responsible for the welfare budget etc., I get in something about that.

I also think we should appeal to them to not be 'yes men and women.' It makes them a bit pathetic to toe a party line that is so outrageous.

The main thing is to keep up the pressure. If we remain silent they'll think that we'll put up with this attack on us and our livelihoods. Look at the noise Shelter makes - more crap from them this month about 'abusive landlords.' They did a bit of research and then extrapolated in a pseudo-scientific way to come up with some incredible figure about tenants suffering abuse from their landlords.
Since we're regulated to within an inch of our lives, I don't think so, somehow. When we've had abusive tenants (whose numbers will be far greater than abusive landlords, but Shelter says nothing about them), we don't go near the house until they've been well and truly evicted as we know they'll make false accusations. In fact, I have had an abusive tenant on the 'phone recently and if Shelter asked her was I abusive, of course she would say yes. She's obviously very annoyed she has been made to leave my house for not paying the rent. It's bloody infuriating. But it also illustrates how we have to also be heard - but with our straightforward request for justice and fairness - not prejudiced ranting against a singled-out group.

I've received a very enlightening email from the Scrutiny Department at the House of Commons, in response to some questions I asked them. Just had a quick scan and it may be that the issue is not going to be debated on the floor of the House, but only in a smaller Committee. I haven't got time to read the whole thing at the moment. And someone else may have a better eye for it.
This should help us target further who we want to influence:

'Information about the passage of the Finance Bill is available here: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/finance.html

A Public Bill Committee (PBC) comprises a number of MPs who are appointed by parliament to examine a bill. They can be quite large but usually less than 20 members. In the case of a Finance Bill, parts of it are referred to a PBC with the rest dealt on the floor of the House. The programme motion specifies which parts this applies to: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm150721/debtext/150721-0003.htm#15072125000013

The members of the Finance Bill Committee haven’t been appointed yet: it is expected to be announced on Thursday.

I believe the first committee hearing is on Thursday 17th Sept. The public can attend these.

The submissions are circulated to the committee members to inform their scrutiny of the bill.

This link outlines the passage of a bill and the place of the committee stage in this: http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/commons/coms-commons-first-reading/

Best wishes

Dr Phil Larkin | Scrutiny Unit | House of Commons'