Editor’s comment: Hammond’s welcome focus

An Autumn Statement for property? With its emphasis on infrastructure and housing investment, at times it certainly felt like that. It’s a shame it won’t happen again. It was chancellor Philip Hammond’s first and last Autumn Statement. A single Budget – in the autumn – will replace the March and November set pieces. It’s a sensible move. A Budget just weeks before the start of the tax year in April too often means hastily implemented fiscal changes. That said, it would be hard to imagine another tax and spending statement from the chancellor that will, to such a large extent, focus on the headline concerns of this industry (read EG’s full Autumn Statement round-up here). Yes, he spent longer talking about upgrades to a listed country house than he did about commercial property, but his focus on housing and infrastructure is exactly what industry leaders have demanded of him in recent months. A £23bn National Productivity Investment Fund will invest in transport, digital, R&D and housing. A £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund will target unlocking new private housebuilding in those areas where need is greatest. It is expected to deliver as many as 100,000 new homes. In further welcome evidence of the government’s commitment to a mix of tenures, ministers will relax restrictions on grant funding to allow providers to deliver a range of homes for affordable rent and low-cost ownership. Some £1.4bn will support that. The NPIF will also be used to increase construction of homes on public sector land. Government announced a pilot scheme for this in October, to be backed up with £2bn of funding. Hammond further flexed his regional muscles. He is maintaining his predecessor’s commitment to the Northern Powerhouse. And by allocating £1.8bn regionally through the Local Growth Fund, he ensured a nationwide spread of the limited largesse at his disposal. Disappointingly, there was little progress on further devolution deals: yes, there was progress in Stirling, but none on the Solent or in Leeds. London did better. Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed a £3.15bn devolution deal that will support building 90,000 affordable homes. As importantly, Hammond also relaxed rules around how City Hall can use this money, an important devolution principle that should be applied nationwide. In all it was a statement that made the right noises and supported many sound initiatives with real cash, though no doubt we will learn in the coming days how much is genuinely new and how much is recycled. And despite the new infrastructure spending, Oxford Economics noted: “It will still leave average investment spending as a share of GDP in this parliament below that of the previous five years.” In a further injection of caution, Khan said of the greater investment in London: “Fixing the housing crisis will be a marathon and not a sprint.” Of course, Hammond could have gone further. Changes to transitional relief on business rates stopped short of what was demanded of him. And lifting the additional 3% stamp duty land tax for institutional investors in residential property would have sent a signal that the government was doing whatever it takes to support the private rented sector. (It looks too like we will have to wait until the new year for the housing white paper, which will spell out further detail, but better to be late and considered than hit an artificial deadline with ill-thought-through policies.) Add to that his limited room for manoeuvre – the double whammy of an economy that has performed better than expected since the referendum but is expected to slow considerably next year – and Hammond’s clear prioritisation of the headline issues that matter to property was especially welcome. And, given the tinkering of recent years, we shouldn’t forget that the fact that no new property taxes were unveiled might be the most welcome news of all. • To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@estatesgazette.com or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette