Burnley estate agents: Budget shows Government doesn't prioritise housing crisis

With Prime Minister Theresa May herself speaking of a "housing crisis", the Chancellor's failure to prioritise housing provision in the recent Budget has caused uproar in the property sector, with a Burnley estate agents calling it a "missed opportunity".

Local estate agents Petty expressed profound disappointment with Chancellor Philip Hammond's Budget announcement, with Ian Bythell, Residential Director at Petty’s, saying: “There was little in Philip Hammond’s budget for the property sector to believe the Government really does prioritise the housing crisis.”

While Hammond claimed that first-time buyer numbers were at an 11-year high due to the stamp duty relief on mainstream homes - now to be extended to first-time buyers of shared ownership homes - and that the Government would provide £8.5m for housing allocated for and sold at a discount to people with a direct connection to specific areas, Petty's said the Budget did not go far enough.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“There are one or two positives to pull from this budget but that was all," Ian said, with experts branding the Government's commitment to spending £44 billion on house-building and the stamp duty relief as well as a £1bn boost in the form of Business Bank guarantees for small- and medium-sized house builders as insufficient.

"The Chancellor could have done a lot more; I think he missed an opportunity by not going far enough on stamp duty," he added. "As the areas only Relocation Network Agents, we see a good number of second-steppers or last-time buyers looking to downsize who could have been given a boost by this too."