Oh Dear: More joined up thinking. not.

[n5gooner]

while it may cause to fire the housing boom - investments should diversify, I have rental property - so this is good - but you have to spread your investments, "eggs in one basket" come to mind........how many people will be caught out and have a very low pension.....

[The Lone Gunman]

I do hope that was a proper use f the Oh Dear trademark.

BBC report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4182644.stm


I seem to remember Fatty two jags saying we needed 250,000 new houses to cope with demand? Surely this will make the shortages worse.
On the up side it should push along the property boom.

Tax plan sparks rural homes fear

The tax break on second homes is due to come into force in April 2006

Plans to give tax breaks on second homes could exacerbate the shortage of affordable housing in the countryside, a government watchdog has warned.

From April investment in residential properties will count as part of a pension and qualify for tax rebates.

Financial advisers say investors are queuing up to buy second homes and the Affordable Rural Housing Commission fears this could raise prices further.

But the Treasury says this measure will only appeal to a few people.

BBC rural affairs correspondent Tom Heap said the spiralling cost of housing in the countryside was fast becoming the biggest source of concern in rural areas, which many rural dwellers priced out of the market.

I think it could lead to a mini property 'spike' next year with prices, almost artificially, inflated


Malcolm Cuthbert



A housing shortage along with the number of properties bought as holiday homes by wealthy city dwellers were thought to be factors, he said.

Now in an interview for BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth programme, ARHC chairman Elinor Goodman said that the chancellor's plans "on the face of it" seemed contrary to trying to keep prices down in the countryside.

In the Lake District - where average house prices are already 10 times annual salaries - the policy has been described as "insane".

Stan Collins, a South Lakeland district councillor, said local people would find it hard to make sense of the proposals. "Gordon Brown is more keen on providing a tax shelter for the rich than helping people to get homes who need them," he said. Malcolm Cuthbert, of the stockbrokers and advisers Killick and Co, said the changes "could lead to a mini property 'spike' next year with prices, almost artificially, inflated."