Commentators have welcomed the UK chancellor’s budget announcement today, highlighting the positive impact that the stamp duty holiday extension could have on the property and home improvement sectors. Rishi Sunak set out an extension to the stamp duty holiday, an increased nil-rate band until September and a government-backed mortgage guarantee scheme.
“We know that Brits love to fix up their properties,” said Ben Dyer, CEO of Powered Now, a software company for the UK trade and construction industry. “Home improvement projects experienced a real boom after the first lockdown of 2020. But as a nation, we are widely unaware of the requirement to document these projects, and likewise, the consequences of not recording such improvements. As our research has shown, we are still widely unaware of the proper certification we need to provide to solicitors and conveyancers when processing transactions. Without such documentation, sales can be held up for weeks, if not months. The extension therefore is really important to helping the UK avoiding a wide reaching legal quagmire.”
“We welcome the news that the feared ‘cliff edge’ at the end of this month has been avoided,” added David Hannah, principal consultant for Cornerstone Tax. “We are also interested to note the tapering effect which we and other commentators had called for, with the raising of the nil rate band to £250,000 from the end of June until the end of September. While there is still a danger of a mini cliff edge at the end of September, the impact will be far smaller than it could have been.”
