Mortgage experts have criticised the Reform UK housing and tax policies as being superficially appealing but risking a return to the financial damage created by the Liz Truss mini-Budget in 2022.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has pledged to repeal tax changes which have penalised landlords since 2015 and scrapping stamp duty for residential purchases below £750,000. Higher-value house purchases would see reduced stamp duty while the Renters Reform Bill would be scrapped once and for all, and some 98% of estates freed from any prospect of Inheritance Tax.
Interviewed by the Newspage agency, mortgage brokers had mixed views.
Scott Gallacher, director at Rowley Turton, says: “There are serious questions about the affordability of Reform's tax plans. Consequently, we would be concerned about the potential repeat of a Liz Truss mini-Budget style debacle and the impact that would have on interest rates and mortgage borrowers in particular. Currently, we're not convinced any party is being entirely honest with the voters about the state of the country's finances."
Amit Patel, an adviser at Trinity Finance, comments: "When a party has no chance whatsoever to get elected into office, they can offer everything under the sun. A vote for Reform is a vote for failure and bigotry."
Meanwhile Ben Perks, managing director at Orchard Financial Advisors, sees it this way: "Scrapping Section 24 for landlords is a good policy. Allowing landlords to off-set financial costs and mortgage interest will help to alleviate the burden of the higher rates and fees they are now paying. In turn, this could reduce the rents that they charge their tenants. This would be a welcome change given the ever-increasing rents that many tenants are experiencing."
And Rohit Kohli, director at The Mortgage Stop, adds: "Whilst I find myself in agreement with the changes to Section 24, when you are not likely to get anywhere near power it's really easy to make headline-grabbing, unrealistic and unfunded promises without any clear plan of how they are to be delivered. Does anyone need to be reminded of the Truss/Kwarteng debacle? This has the potential to make the markets' response to that appear like a minor economic blip."
Simon Bridgland, director at Release Freedom, states: "For the housing sector, Reform's contract is a humdinger. Love him or loathe him, it will be very interesting to see how the polls predict the election now that Farage's party has announced its contract. I would now expect to see a further swing of favour to the Reform Party. Behind closed doors the Tory party will be reeling from this."
And Colin Brown, Head of Planning & Development at property consultancy Carter Jonas, says: “Like the other parties, Reform is prioritising brownfield development by fast-tracking development proposals and providing fiscal incentives. The party acknowledges the need for planning reform and has referenced "loose fit" requirements for other large-scale residential developments but there is no clarification as to what this might look like in practice.
“Reform’s contract is far shorter than other manifestos and contains a lot less detail. For example, there is no new homes target or comment on regional planning or the Green Belt. One senses it's a rather rushed piece of work and Reform has other priorities which perhaps trump planning and housing.”
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The Reform policies could work if the party doesn't try to do everything at once. They could begin with the policies that won't cost the country anything, and phase in the others over five years. Liz Truss did too much at once without properly costing everything.
Given a chance Liz could have worked
I agree, Andrew, but the money men (examples in this article) did not want it to work.😠
I do hope Trinity Finance will lose clients for their comments calling a vote for REFORM a vote for failure and bigotry. 😡
I Agree. Liz Truss's policies were for growth, something the two main parties hve not addressed. Liz Truss made the mistake of trying to do it all at once, thus spooking the Establishment
Liz would have been great. But she tried to do too much too quickly.
I also agre with Andrew on Liz Truss policies. Liz should have been a lot more shrewd and better implement her policies. She made it too easy for her to be brought down. It's not as easy as it looks.
For now though Reform just need to worry about getting the votes.
I was out leafletting yesterday and had 7-8 very positive comments, one chap even catching up with us wanting to say well done. We had one staunch Labour supporter and one chap told us to mind our own business!
Establishment desperate to damage Reform and Farage wether it's paid activists throwing stuff or a media campaign to try and discredit him. Ironically it's only the BBC that went through the costings and said yes there were some discrepancies but like all these election promises until they have the Nations books in their grotty little mitts everything is just a wish and a kiss.
I very much doubt with his financial background Nigel's going to trash the economy he'll know what can actually be paid for and when. Let's face it he's not going to form the next Government so why the media hysterics? Because they want the status quo of the Uniparty. Not someone who could actually expose their corruption like he did with the Banks.
So true, John. The Daily Mail has five articles every day that either directly attack REFORM or contain an attack on REFORM.
So true they want to rubbish him and the party , they are running scared 😱
Basing costings on people's current attitudes and work patterns is wrong, but it's hard to quantify exactly what the reality would be.
Reform policies would totally change how people work and what they do with their money. As a consequence spending in the High Street and on leisure activities would increase. Right now people dump huge amounts of money into SIPPs to avoid paying 40% tax. While planning for retirement is sensible the current tax system makes working to capacity unattractive.
Some of us pay into SIPPs so the money is there to pay IHT. Without IHT to worry about that money could be sloshing around the local economy creating jobs and profit for local people.
Currently some employers prioritise foreign workers over local applicants. That may be valid in highly skilled roles but for unskilled work it's contentious. How can our underemployed stop being on benefits if employers prioritise even more unskilled new comers? I'm talking about people who want to work, not the ones who are perfectly happy to do nothing. Whether it's due to diversity box ticking or because they are easier to rip off due to limited language skills will vary from employer to employer. Making employers think carefully about who to recruit due to the proposal for higher employer NI for migrant workers is inspired.
I have a friend that runs an engineering business making paint spray booths, he only employs the Polish because they want to work
Andrew - I agree Eastern Europeans tend to be pretty productive. We don't have that many where I work but the few we have got are good. It's workers from elsewhere that are more questionable. Lack of communication skills is a big problem. If you ask them to do anything they either don't understand or pretend to not understand. Working as part of a 3 or 4 person team with them is like watching paint dry. On the bright side at least I don't know when they're talking about football!
It doesnt matter that they won't "get in", l suspect the volume of votes that Reform secures will rock the establishment and surprise the pants off the Media! Excellent!!
I'll be voting for Reform UK. Less state involvement in everyday things and those who want to work keep more of their earnings. They at least recognise LL's are a valuable resource and want to encourage and keep them.
If Reform do in fact achieve a high number of votes hopefully it will result in a proper Conservative party next time round.
That could result in a coalition government possibly between Reform and the Conservatives this time round , but Reform would need to win a significant number of seats for that to happen, and Labour support would have to fall significantly.
Margaret, they are the proper Conservative party.
My problem with Reform is that I am not happy with Brexit. I would like to rejoin EU. I have found European tenants to excellent tenants. Sadly they have returned back to their countries along with all the brilliant Polish builders.
If you want to rejoin then that gives you the choice of the Liberal Democrats or the Green Party.
Generally I have found east European tenants to be better than British tenants also
Not many people are happy with Brexit. The Europeans have bullied and not respected us and we have not fully left as I would have liked. Therefore it is not good.
However, re-joining would be madness. We would need another vote and have to listen to all the spurious claims.
I know why I voted, I won't go into this, but though unhappy with how it has been implemented by both sides I would still not change my mind.
I would add that I have a property in France and it is more difficult and my partner is European, but in my view it is better for this country that we are out of it. IMHO
Andy
Brexit is not the problem. The implementation, or lack thereof, was. The remainers in Parliament and the civil service made sure that they would water it down, but it is still, in many respects, successful. I fear Labour will not give us a vote since they will have un in the EU in all but name.
Ellie - There is no way I will vote Lib Dem or Green - both are too far left for me.
Reform uk 🇬🇧👍🏼
My vote for Reform is done and in the post
Well done, Andrew. 👍
You can tell by the attacks on REFORM that they are getting more support than the polls suggest. Even the BBC is attacking them so I suspect it is not just the Conservatives who are losing votes. 😉
I just do not understand the Tory politicians who now promise to do what they should have done by now. 😠 Failure will not be rewarded.
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