March 2020
Stamp duty surcharge
The government will introduce an additional tax on foreign buyers of UK property. Non-resident buyers will now pay an additional 2 per cent stamp duty. Until now, overseas buyers were subject to the same stamp duty as UK residents, going from 0 per cent for properties under £125,000 up to 12 per cent for those worth more than £1.5 million. The surcharge is lower than the 3 per cent mooted in the Conservative Party election manifesto last year.
Change in planning
A register of brownfield sites will be set up to map out unused land that councils will be encouraged to build on. There has been a pledge to fast track any applications to demolish commercial, residential and industrial buildings to make way for new homes.
Affordable homes
The Affordable Homes Programme will get a £12 billion boost. The Housing Infrastructure Fund will receive £1.1 billion to build almost 70,000 new homes throughout the UK. There is a £400 million fund to build on brownfield sites and interest rates for loans from the Public Works Loan Board, which councils use to fund housebuilding schemes, will be cut by 1 per cent, unlocking £1 billion.
Homelessness
A new £650 million fund has been set up to tackle homelessness and move 6,000 rough sleepers into permanent accommodation.
Cladding
A Building Safety fund of £1 billion will help to remove all unsafe combustible cladding from all private and local authority residential building which measure above 18m high.
Flooding
Flood defences spending will be doubled to £5.2 billion over the next six years. Communities hit by flooding will receive £120 million to improve existing defences and repair damaged properties, with an extra £200 million for places hit more than once.