As the Autumn budget looms, HM Treasury has been ‘leaking’ various tax increase proposals, which it hopes will plug the Chancellor’s self-engineered £40-50 billion fiscal hole.

The latest, to charge self-employed landlords National Insurance on their rental income, will generate £2 billion for its coffers, it is claimed.

But this is the ‘straw that could break the camel’s back’ for the lettings industry and its landlords, which has become asphyxiated by the relentless legislation and regulatory changes imposed over the past ten years.

To remind you, this includes:

– Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge, 2016
– Right to Rent checks, 2016
– Reduction in wear and tear allowance, 2016
– Prudential Regulation Authority stress testing, 2017
– Mortgage Interest Relief reductions, 2017-2020
– Energy efficiency standards, 2018
– Tenants Fees Act, 2019
– Deposit cap, 2019
– More stringent standards for smoke/CO alarms, 2020-2022
– Electrical safety standards, 2020
– Higher mortgage rates, 2022
– Renters Reform Bill, 2025

Given all this, it’s no surprise that 31% of all private landlords are planning to scale back their portfolios and almost 90% have cited regulatory or tax changes as the primary reason.

Over the past few decades, successive UK governments have under-invested in social housing resulting in a significant shortfall.

Right now, local authorities and the Housing Associations cannot meet demand so that the private rented sector absorbs millions who can’t afford to get onto the property ladder and would otherwise rely on social housing, of which 1.2 million are currently on this list.

With private landlords now determined to sell up and flee the sector, the net effect is that supply of rental properties is shrinking, and rents are rising relentlessly by 10%, making them even more unaffordable for the vulnerable.

Manifesto promise

As if this isn’t bad enough, currently, the build rate of new homes is roughly 200,000 per annum, well below the 300,000 target within the Labour Party’s manifesto – with improvements unlikely to be significant.

Nevertheless, the government, with its terminal myopia, seems to forget that the private rental sector is vital to providing homes for those who can’t afford to get onto the property ladder.

As long as affordable housing supply remains constrained, Ministers need to pay due respect to this sector, instead of treating buy-to-let landlords as pariahs.

Trevor Abrahmsohn is Chief Executive of Glentree International.