The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, delivered his Autumn Statement on 17th November 2022. Home owners and movers may well be breathing a sigh of relief that very little contained in the budget will affect the housing market.
Stamp Duty
In the statement, Mr Hunt said that the Office for Budget Responsibility [OBR) expected housing activity to slow down over the next two years. As such, the stamp duty cuts announced by the last chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in September’s disastrous mini-budget will continue until March 31 2025.
Mr Hunt said: “After that, I will sunset the measure, creating an incentive to support the housing market and all the jobs associated with it by boosting transactions during the period the economy most needs it.”
The stamp duty changes became effective in September, and included a raise of the threshold for stamp duty payments on properties between £125,000 and £250,000.
Capital Gains Tax
Investors, second-home owners and landlords will face a cut in the annual allowance for capital gains tax, which will be reduced from £12,300 to £6,000 in 2023/24 and again to £3,000 in 2024/25.
Those selling property that is not their main residence will pay thousands of pounds more tax on the profits, and experts have warned of a danger that the move will trigger force landlords to sell quickly to beat the tax changes.
Council Tax
Local authorities in England will be able to raise council tax by 5% without the need for a referendum. Up to now, councils had to put planned increases of more than 2% to a public vote.
Energy Consumption
A target of 15% reduction in “final” energy consumption from buildings and industry by 2030 was announced.
Levelling Up
The government will continue with its second round of the Levelling Up Fund, which will allocate at least £1.7 billion to priority local infrastructure projects.
It will also deliver on its Levelling Up White Paper commitment to give devolved powers to Greater Manchester and the West Midlands Combined Authorities by 2023, which aims to achieve levelling up in areas including housing.
Energy Price Guarantee
The measure which offers support with energy bills will continue this winter but will be reduced from April. This is as previously announced, and average bills are set to increase from £2,500 per year to £3,000 at this time.