Buy-to-let tax squeeze should be “scrapped” says high profile Tory peer

A former Tory grandee has criticised the government’s recent buy-to-let tax tax squeeze, describing it as “ill conceived”. Former Tory vice-chairman and shadow Vice Secretary to the Treasury Lord Flight (pictured, right) has called for the government to scrap many of the recent taxes on landlords and “provide the support needed to the individuals and small businesses who make up the vast majority of the country’s landlords”. Stifling investment His comments were made on the Conservative Home website over the weekend, in which he also calls for the recent hike in Stamp Duty on buy-to-let purchases and reduction in reliefs to be scrapped because they are “stifling investment, as anyone could have predicted” and catching out “natural Conservative voters”. “The decisions to impose a stamp duty levy on the purchase of homes to rent out, coupled with restricting mortgage interest relief to the basic rate of income tax and the decision to tax a landlord’s turnover rather than profits, are causing many landlords simply not to invest further in much needed new homes to rent; or even to consider leaving the sector altogether,” he says. “The mortgage interest restrictions need to be scrapped, and the stamp duty levy needs also…

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