UK government to incentivise house builders
The UK government has announced a New Homes Bonus scheme which will be offered to all English councils who participate in new house building projects to alleviate a shortage of affordable property in the UK. Despite the fact there are 4.5 million people on the English Council housing list only 120,000 new properties were built last year. So how will this incentive scheme work?
In simple terms the UK government has offered a sweetener which will see the government match the council tax raised on each new house for six years. When you consider that for a band D home this equates to £1400 a year there is considerable scope for local authorities to improve their income streams. There is some debate as to how the scheme will work out in practice but there is also no doubt that there are housing shortages in many areas of the UK, something which has been synonymous with the UK property sector for many years.
The UK government has taken a very different approach to the previous Labour government in various areas of the UK economy although whether David Cameron will be more successful remains to be seen. Time will tell!
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