His reasoning was to level the playing field between landlords and owner occupiers.
It was a rationale that was challenged at the time by the head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, when he told a House of Lords committee that the tax system did not favour landlords over owner-occupiers even before these changes.
Part of Osborne’s calculation was that in discouraging investment in rental housing, it would put first-time buyers in a better position to compete for properties.
The London School of Economics responded by asserting that what limited research there was suggested that only “a minority” of property sales involved bids from both landlords and prospective owner-occupiers.
Further measures making it less attractive to provide rented property since then include capital gains tax (CGT) rates on residential property being higher than on other assets, fewer tax deductions for maintenance, and uncertainty about what rental reform will look like.
Given the amount now needed to be saved for a deposit and the cost of mortgages it is hardly surprising that the Yorkshire Building Society reports that the number of first-time buyers last year was at its lowest level since 2013.
Coupled with a demographic bulge in the number of people leaving school and those attending university, all these, mostly younger people, need somewhere to live.
