Budget: Why the buy-to-let sector shouldn't breathe a sigh of relief

Like many buy-to-let experts my initial reaction was to breathe a sigh of relief. Indeed, I still think we should all feel a little relieved to have been left out of Mr Hammond’s plans this year after featuring quite heavily in most of the fiscal announcements since 2015.

However, now that that initial feeling of relief has passed, I’m wondering whether it’s actually a bad thing that the landlord sector wasn’t mentioned. Allow me to explain why.

Since George Osborne announced changes to the way landlords claim tax relief back in 2015 we’ve watched Budget and statements through our fingers, nervous about further changes in the sector and, unfortunately, witnessing many.

We’ve got used to the fact that whenever landlords are mentioned they will invariably be disappointed with what is said (of course, this goes for the national media as well as politicians!) and so naturally there was a collective ‘finally’ when this year buy-to-let was omitted.

But cast your mind back, if you will, to the Housing White Paper announced early in 2017. The much-anticipated report was expected to outline how the government was going to save the housing market from crisis and while, on the whole, it was something of a damp squib, one thing did stand out to most – and that was the focus on renting.

It was clear from that paper that the government wanted renting to be seen as an acceptable form of tenure as opposed to something people do while they’re trying to buy. Indeed, many experts claimed the paper showed a ‘huge shift’ in policy with a greater emphasis on renting.

Why, then, were tenants left out of the Budget? Why no mention of the rental sector? The Residential Landlords Association has hit out at what it calls a Budget which “fails the country’s private tenants”.

We need to see renting accepted as an acceptable and, in many ways, beneficial form of tenure. When it is accepted that many people do not want to or cannot buy a property, we’ll have to have a greater focus on improving the rental sector. When we accept that people are renting for the long-term, more will need to be done to help landlords and tenants alike.

The chancellor, it seems, has failed to recognise this.