Estate agents are calling for the Liz Truss cabinet to tackle five pressing issues within the property industry.
This includes more and longer-term help with branch fuel bills, more green funding to upgrade the nation’s housing stock, suspending the 3% extra stamp duty paid by landlords for 12 months, overhauling Local Housing Allowance rates for poorer tenants and delivering on previous Tory promises to build more homes.
The ‘mini manifesto’ ahead of today’s ‘mini budget’ is published by Propertymark, which says it is getting frustrated by the ever more rapidly revolving doors at the department of housing, and the government’s inaction in the face of huge housing shortages both in the property rental and sales sectors.
Timothy Douglas (main pic), its Head of Policy and Campaigns, says he’s “run out of fingers on which to count the number of Housing Ministers in recent years.
“This is just one department. We need a period of political stability across Westminster along with bold ideas to address the property sector’s many live issues.
“Our members tell us time and time again that they do not have enough homes to sell or rent, this is creating affordability issues, particularly in the private rented sector.
“We have a Prime Minister who has committed to a programme of tax cuts and a new Secretary of State for Housing who has already acknowledged the need to build more homes, let’s see a clear and decisive plan of how they intend to turn those words into positive action to stimulate both markets.
“It’s also important to remember estate and letting agencies are businesses that make a significant contribution to the economy.”
