Surveyors call on UK government to take ‘radical ac...

The Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA) is calling on the government to consider some radical measures to stimulate all aspects of the residential property market.

The Association has welcomed the government's decision to lower corporation tax in a bid to boost the economy, but believes that more needs to be done to address the UK housing market’s needs, including the construction of significantly more much needed new homes.

Alan Milstein, chairman of RPSA, said: “The announcement that corporation tax will be lowered over time to stimulate the economy is welcome news, but it is not nearly enough to address the problems that we have in the housing market.

“We would encourage the government to carefully look at the property market as forming the engine for economic growth over the coming months and years as the uncertainty of Brexit looms over the UK.”

The RPSA has compiled some proposals that it believes the government should consider adopting. These measures include:

+ Accelerating the reduction of Corporation Tax for small businesses to 10%

+ Increasing the VAT threshold to £200,000 to encourage growth amongst the many small businesses that serve the property market

+ Forgetting distractions such as privatising the Land Registry which could negatively impact on the market

+ Looking to local authorities to take on the challenge of building new homes and not just for social housing. Following both World Wars in the Twentieth Century such building programmes produced record numbers of new homes, well constructed and which ultimately passed into the hands of aspiring homeowners

+ Scrapping Stamp Duty Land Tax as advocated by the Taxpayers Alliance and other stakeholders

Milstein added: “Following Brexit and the installation of a new government we have the opportunity to take some radical action to stimulate small businesses and address the large and ever growing shortfall in our housing stock supply. In short we can focus on the property market as the engine for UK economic growth in the coming months and years.”