It seems that most of the 2021 Budget had been pre-leaked before Mr Sunak rose in the House of Commons yesterday, so no real surprises on the day.
As far as property is concerned he reported the following:
On the Residential side:
- the Extension of stamp duty holiday till 30 June 2021 in its current form
- then the threshold reduced to £250,000 for the 3 months till 30 September 2021
- the introduction of the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, meaning a 5% only deposit required by some purchasers
On the Commercial side:
- £6bn of Business Rates Relief, lasting the whole of 2021-2022, 100% till July 2021 and then a two-thirds discount thereafter
- from July it is being capped per business rather than per property
- there was no mention of a wider much needed fundamental review of Business Rates, which everyone was hoping for
- the two years Super Deduction is a welcome boost for companies incurring capital expenses on their real estate
- the establishment of a UK Infrastructure bank based in Leeds and an economic institution in Darlington
- eight ‘freeport’ enterprise zone locations have been announced in England. These are: Thames, Liverpool City Region, Solent, East Midlands, Freeport East, Plymouth & South Devon, Humber and Teesside. These areas will be special economic zones
- plus £1bn of funding for 45 separate towns via the Town Fund to help aid recovery from the Covid 19 pandemic
“The recovery of UK businesses will not occur overnight.”
“However, with such strong Government backing, I am optimistic that organisations will begin to return to pre-COVID levels over the coming months, and go from strength to strength.”
Only time will tell.
