Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of recent trends in buy-to-let cost rises; and what steps his Department is taking to mitigate against any adverse effect from significant changes in property prices.

The Government recognises issues of affordability in the Private Rented Sector. The Housing White Paper launched on 7th February sets out how the Government will fix the broken housing market by boosting housing supply, thereby helping to improve affordability in the long term.

The Government also recognises the important role that buy-to-let landlords play in the UK housing market and economy.

At Summer Budget 2015, the Government set out a package of measures to reduce the budget deficit, rebalance the economy and make the tax system fairer.

HMRC’s analysis shows that only 1 in 5 landlords will be affected by the tax changes on property finance costs (such as mortgage interest or interest on loans to buy furnishings).

The Government does not expect this to have a large impact on house prices or rent levels due to the small overall proportion of the housing market affected. The Office of Budget Responsibility also expects any impact to be small.