UKRE Newsflash: Spring Budget 2024

Today sees the announcement of the much-awaited Spring Budget 2024, from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

Given that a General Election needs to be held before 31 January 2025, there has already been much commentary as to what the budget may or may not contain.

Early views suggest that it is not necessarily a budget of great surprises, designed for the electorate and painting the incumbent Government in the most positive fiscal light.

From a UKRE property perspective, we at Ferbrache & Farrell LLP can report some key points, in no particular order of importance:-

• On property taxes, the Chancellor has reduced the higher capital gains tax rate on property from 28% to 24%;
• The previous stamp duty relief for people buying more than one dwelling has been abolished;
• Tax breaks are being removed for second homeowners to let out furnished properties to holiday makers rather than to long-term tenants (and which has historically been a popular step);
• The abolition of the UK non-domicile tax status; and which will have wide reaching implications; and
• On more general housing, the Chancellor has allocated £242m of investments in Barking Riverside and Canary Wharf. Here, he says, nearly 8,000 homes will be built “as well as transforming Canary Wharf into a new hub for life science companies“.

By way of short summary, the following has also been announced:

• Inflation has been predicted to reach two per cent over summer 2024;
• From April ,1 the VAT registration threshold will increase from £85,000 to £90,000;
• A series of levelling-up measures includes £100m for areas including High Peak, Dundee, Conwy, Erewash, Redditch and Coventry to support “cultural projects“;
• Scotland will receive an extra £300m, Wales £170m and Northern Ireland £100m under the Barnett devolved funding formula;
• An additional £6bn has been allocated for the NHS, including £2.5bn this year;
• The sum of £105m has been earmarked over next four years to building 50 new special free schools;
• There has been a provision for £75m for ‘hotspot policing’;
• Fuel duty will be frozen for another 12 months;
• A six-month extension has been granted to the Household Support Fund;
• Alcohol duty will be frozen;
• There will be a new tax on vapes and a one-off rise in tobacco duty;
• The energy profits levy will be extended until 2029;
• A new British Savings Bond will be introduced with a guaranteed rate, fixed for three years;
• A new British ISA has been launched, allowing an additional £5,000 investments in UK equity to be made each year;
• The sum of £45m has been budgeted for medical charities, including £3m for Cancer Research UK; and
• The sum of £1m has been pledged for a memorial to honour Muslims who died in two World Wars.

From our UK Real Estate standpoint, we welcome adapting to any changes in the economic landscapes to act in the best interests of our clients.

Through our excellent intermediary working relationships, we are able to successfully deliver service excellence and in so doing, placing our clients in the strongest possible position.

If you need any further information or legal advice, including conveyancing of a property in England, please contact our designated UKRE team Anna Douglass, Alastair Hargreaves, Caren Vidamour and Naledi Odiseng, who will be delighted to assist.