Our Budget response

For the property sector though it was bitter sweet. A hike in stamp duty on second home/investment property purchases to 5% is at best inconvenient. But not terminal.

Retaining the 24% CGT level on resi investment property disposals, a reprieve given that at one point we thought Reeves might apply CGT to all property sales including prime residences. She didn’t go anywhere near that.

Business Asset Disposal Relief stays at 10% until April, rising to 14%. This could have been much worse. If you’re selling a business soon, do it now.

On wider aspects, abolishing the income tax threshold freeze (in 2028) ends the fiscal drag trick. Good news for millions of employees.

But the 1.2% NI increase on employers’ contributions is irritating, especially for larger businesses. Small businesses under a certain number of employees will be exempt though. I suspect this increase will simply be reflected in lower pay awards for employees and so ‘workers’ will lose out – despite the Chancellor’s manifesto pledge.

A 16% increase in the living wage is surely an overall societal positive? Many will argue that if your business relies upon paying many of your staff ‘the minimum’ that your enterprise might not be that viable in any case?

All in all this Budget could have been worse and leaves the property industry pretty much unscathed.

Note: The clever money is on another Bank rate cut in November. This positive news for homebuyers will outweigh any obstacles announced today, in my opinion.

Onwards…