Further investment for new homes and a ban on letting agents charging fees to tenants have been announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond today (23 November).

As the Chancellor delivered his first – and last – Autumn Statement to the House of Commons, outlining the government’s forthcoming spending plans, he highlighted the housing challenge as one of the economy’s “long term weaknesses” which needs to be tackled.

Ahead of abolishing the Autumn Statement to instead make way for a Spring Statement in the years ahead which will be “no major fiscal event”, he used this announcement as an opportunity to set out a range of new measures for the residential property sector ahead of a Housing White Paper which will bring further detail on addressing issues in the future.

Letting agents’ fees will no longer be charged to tenants as plans have been revealed to ban them “as soon as possible”.

Confirming the move, Hammond said: “In the private rental market, letting agents are currently able to charge unregulated fees to tenants.

“We have seen these spiral, often to hundreds of pounds. This is wrong. Landlords appoint letting agents and landlords should meet their fees.”

The Chancellor also pledged further investment for new homes in the form of a new £2.3 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock land for new houses and deliver infrastructure for up to 100,000 new properties in areas of high demand.

A £1.4 billion investment to deliver 40,000 additional affordable homes was also among the key housing points put forward, with the plans to relax restrictions on government grant to allow a “wider range of housing types”.

The Chancellor went on to highlight a large-scale regional pilot of the Right to Buy initiative for housing association tenants, which will offer more than 3,000 tenants an opportunity to purchase their own property.

Having also committed to continued support for the existing Help to Buy: Equity Loan and Help to Buy: ISA schemes, he said in his speech: “This package means that over the course of this Parliament, the government expects to more than double, in real terms, annual capital spending on housing.

“Coupled with our resolve to tackle the long term challenges of land supply.

“This commitment to housing delivery represents a step-change in our ambition to increase the supply of homes for sale and for rent, to deliver a housing market that works for everyone.”

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