Doug Crawford, CEO of My Home Move, comments on today’s Budget

“This is a budget which made no mention of the housing market. The bold statement made a month ago that Britain’s housing market is broken, has today, been side-stepped.

“Last year the Chancellor’s predecessor made sweeping changes to the tax system for those looking to purchase additional homes, a move the Government hoped would slow the buy-to-let market in favour of first-time buyers. And while buy-to-let activity has now halved, and first-time buyer activity has begun to increase, what hasn’t been addressed is that buy-to-let landlords aren’t big corporations, but individuals making a living, to help support their own families.

“And come the 6^th April, landlords will suffer a further blow as changes to mortgage interest relief come into force; coupled with increases in National Insurance for the self-employed announced today – an estimated one in five landlords will be affected. The fear being that any additional costs will end up being passed on to their tenants; meaning rents will go up, while their ability to save for a deposit for their first home, will go down.

“What we need is a property market that works for every kind of buyer including the Government’s ‘ordinary working families’. By putting the brakes on the buy-to-let sector all the Government has done is caused a problem further along the housing chain. In the future, we urge the Government to look at the issues as a whole, in order to fix its broken housing market.”