Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that mortgage lenders do not prevent landlords leasing properties to tenants in receipt of social security benefits.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government wants to ensure tenants in receipt of housing benefit are able to access suitable properties.
UK Finance has assured us that the majority of active Buy-to-Let lenders do not prevent landlords leasing properties to tenants in receipt of social security benefits. Therefore, any landlord who wants to let to benefit claimants should be able to easily find a lender who will allow that.
It is also worth noting that only about a third of private rental properties are financed by a buy to let mortgage.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the tax gap between tax owed and tax paid by private landlords.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The information requested is not available as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not make a separate estimate of the proportion of the total tax gap attributable to private landlords.
However, HMRC does estimate the tax gap arising from individuals in employment who have not declared and therefore not paid tax on lettings income. The latest estimate of this tax gap was £600 million for the tax year 2016-17.
HMRC publishes the 2014-15 estimate of this tax gap in Table H.5, and describes the methodology used to project this forward to 2016-17 in paragraphs H61 to H73, in ‘Measuring tax gaps 2018 edition: methodological annex’ available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps.
The Government has made excellent progress to lower the overall tax gap, which remains at its lowest level for five years at 5.7% for 2016-17.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many renting households have paid stamp duty land tax (SDLT) in each of the last five years; and how much SDLT has been paid by such households in total.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The table below provides estimates of the number of residential transactions that were liable for the leasehold rates of SDLT based on the net present value (NPV) of the rent. NPV of the rental amount for leasehold property transactions is the total rent paid over the term of the lease, discounted to take account of the time value of money. This includes transactions that where SDLT at the residential premium rates was paid on the leasehold premium value:
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| Estimates of Residential Transactions liable to SDLT on rental amounts 1 |
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| Tax year | Number of liable transactions | Value of SDLT paid (£m) |
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| 2012-13 | 2,900 |
| 11 |
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| 2013-14 | 2,900 |
| 11 |
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| 2014-15 | 3,600 |
| 14 |
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| 2015-16 | 5,200 |
| 20 |
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| 2016-17,P | 5,800 |
| 33 |
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| 1 SDLT ceased being charged in Scotland from April 2015 so figures from 2015-16 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years | |||||
| P Provisional figures |
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Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of annual spend on the (a) Help to Buy ISA in each financial year between 2015-16 and 2020/21 and (b) Lifetime ISA in each financial year between 2017-18 and 2020-21.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The information requested is available from the Office of Budget Responsibility in their Economic and Fiscal Outlook. The most recent version of this document can be found at: http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/efo/economic-fiscal-outlook-november-2017/
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the insurance industry after the Grenfell Tower fire to ensure that residents of other tower blocks (a) can take out building or contents insurance and (b) do not pay more as a result of the fire at Grenfell Tower.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly and firms are required to do so under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules. The FCA sets the conduct standards required of insurance firms which aim to ensure consumers are treated fairly.
The Chancellor has discussed the Grenfell tower disaster with leading industry representatives to get an understanding of how they may respond, and any possible impact on insurance for residents. The industry have said that it is too early to properly understand the implications, so have not yet made any changes to their underwriting models or pricing strategies.
The Treasury has also been in contact with leading insurance companies and has received assurances that no individuals in tower blocks have been refused access to home insurance as a result of the fire at Grenfell Tower. Officials remain in regular contact with the insurance industry to understand how it may shape their view of fire risk. The Treasury will continue to monitor the situation and will investigate this matter further if it sees evidence of customers in tower blocks being treated unfairly.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the projected annual cost is of bonuses due to holders of Help-to-Buy and Lifetime ISAs for each financial year from 2017-18 onwards.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
An update to the costings for the Help to Buy: ISA can be found in the supporting documents to the Autumn Statement 2016. The expected cost of the government bonus payments through the Help to Buy: ISA is £1.2 billion from 2016-17 to 2019-20.
The expected cost of government bonus payments through the Lifetime ISA is as follows:
£170m in 2017/18
£330m in 2018/19
£580m in 2019/20
£830m in 2020/21
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance government departments receive on when they are (a) required and (b) encouraged to conduct an impact assessment.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance applies to the appraisal of all proposals that require use of public resources or assessment of public value. The Green Book also applies to the appraisal of value in Regulatory Impact Assessments.
BEIS provides specific guidance for Regulatory Impact Assessments, which are mandatory for any measure that has a significant regulatory impact on business and civil society organisations.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much he expects the higher rate of stamp duty land tax on additional properties to raise in each year from 2017-18 to 2020-21.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Forecast revenues for the higher rate of stamp duty land tax on additional properties for 2017-2018 to 2020-21 are published by the Office of Budget Responsibility in Table 2.6 of the Economic and Fiscal Outlook – supplementary fiscal tables.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of how many landlords will be (a) affected by, (b) exempted because they are a corporate landlord and (c) exempted because they fall into another exempted group from the restriction on the ability to deduct loan interest and other financial costs as an expense against income from residential property to the basic rate of income tax announced in Summer Budget 2015.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The restriction of finance cost relief to the basic rate of income tax will reduce the tax advantage landlords have over homeowners in the property market, and will ensure all individual landlords receive the same rate of tax relief on their finance costs. HM Revenue and Customs estimates that 1 in 5 landlords will pay more tax as a result of this measure.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the UK's vote to leave the EU on future funding for housing from the European Investment Bank.
Answered by David Gauke
The UK remains a full member of the European Union and it retains all of the rights, obligations and benefits that membership brings. The EIB continues to lend to UK projects and a number of UK project financing deals have been approved and signed since the referendum result. The long-term relationship between the UK and the EIB will need to be resolved as part of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the UK Governor of the European Investment Bank and continues to fulfil his governance duties. The Chancellor continues to meet his European counterparts on a regular basis to discuss a range of issues.
The Government is committed to social housing and the Spending Review announced that the government will invest over £8 billion in housing over the next five years to deliver 400,000 affordable homes.