Labour’s swipe at “rich landlords” benefitting from tax cuts

The tax cuts announced in the government’s ill-fated mini-Budget may have been reversed but they gave Labour a chance to hit out at what it calls “rich landlords.”

Labour’s Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell made the attack in her comments about the original cuts announced by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

One tax cut - to stamp duty - was to support first-time buyers to get a foot on the housing ladder and support the wider housing market.

The cut means buyers in England and Northern Ireland pay no stamp duty on the first £250,000 of a property’s value — double the previous £125,000 threshold — and first-time buyers will pay no tax on the first £425,000, up from £300,000.

First-time buyers in London and the south-east could potentially save as much as £11,250 under the new measures, according to the government. Non-first-time buyers purchasing a house for £312,000 — the average price of a home in England according to the Land Registry — would save around £2,500.

Powell says the move benefits rich landlords and existing homeowners.

Speaking on GB News - a new TV channel - Powell remarked: “It’s not a case of cutting taxes for those at the top of society and hope that somehow that’s going to trickle down to growth for everybody else. That’s an experiment we’ve now endured for the last 30 years of running our economy and it’s not worked.

“And that’s what the government has been doing with their cuts to corporation tax, their initial plans to cut the top rate of tax, and also the cut in stamp duty, which we know will mainly benefit landlords and second homeowners.

“We have a very different approach to taxation, as well as a very different approach to running the economy.

“The most important thing now is that this government goes back to the drawing board, reverses its mini budget and tries to stem this absolute loss of confidence that we’re seeing in the British economy.”

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