Alan Hibben has a very interesting CAPX piece on the hidden regulatory costs of new-build houses in England. Interesting because it is yet another example of the remarkably furtive and opaque nature of taxation.
But they like it like that
Your new home comes with a hidden tax bill
The result is a system in which the buyer of a modest new home is quietly funding affordable housing, local roads, biodiversity credits, planning bureaucracy and the cost of navigating a slow, discretionary planning system. Yet the buyer is never shown the bill. Britain needs legislated transparency for every new-build sale, so households can finally see where their money is going.
The whole piece is well worth reading, even for those who have no intention of buying a new-build house.
Your new home comes with a hidden tax bill
- The buyer of a £450,000 new-build in England is paying £65,500 in public-policy costs
- Disguising the true tax take has become a political art form in modern Britain
- Buyers of new homes need to be shown where their money is going
The result is a system in which the buyer of a modest new home is quietly funding affordable housing, local roads, biodiversity credits, planning bureaucracy and the cost of navigating a slow, discretionary planning system. Yet the buyer is never shown the bill. Britain needs legislated transparency for every new-build sale, so households can finally see where their money is going.
The whole piece is well worth reading, even for those who have no intention of buying a new-build house.
A simple reform: show buyers the bill
If the British state wishes to fund affordable housing, local roads, habitat creation and planning administration through new development, it can do so. But it should do so honestly. A standardised ‘new home cost statement’ attached to every new-build sale would show the estimated per-home incidence of planning obligations, biodiversity obligations, major planning and regulatory fees and SDLT.
If the British state wishes to fund affordable housing, local roads, habitat creation and planning administration through new development, it can do so. But it should do so honestly. A standardised ‘new home cost statement’ attached to every new-build sale would show the estimated per-home incidence of planning obligations, biodiversity obligations, major planning and regulatory fees and SDLT.
5 comments:
Proposal: dump many of the "environmental" regulations; simply pass a law that everyone who buys a new-build must keep a pet newt. From time to time a an officer of H. M. Newt Inspectorate may call to ensure the wee chap is thriving.
People will be allowed to opt out on religious grounds as long as they agree to keep a pet chosen from a short list e.g. dormouse, bat, etc.
To the gov we are all just tax units to be farmed.
The productive sector are free range, to be milked at little cost, to provide intensive farm space for the unproductive, the useless and other parasites.
dearieme - or they could dispose of food waste via a domestic wormery, monitored by H. M. Worm Inspectorate.
Mike - as well as the unproductive and the useless, the number of scammers seems to grow and grow.
I have a relative working in the letting / selling sector; no, he isn’t an estate agent.
Never buy a new-build. Absolutely never. The crippling costs of bureaucratic bumpf, odds, sods, buffoonery and assorted lunacy mean that even the plush £1Mill house has shortcuts, shoddy fixtures and fittings and cost cutting nonsense somewhere in the build. It just isn’t economic otherwise.
Should you be lucky and find your house isn’t sinking, the soil isn’t toxic, it isn’t built on a flood plain and any other 101 causes for alarm, you are one of few.
Again; never buy a new-build.
Chris - thanks, that's interesting. It confirms what a number of people say online, but it seems to get no significant mainstream publicity. We bought a new-build 40 years ago and it was fine, but we wouldn't buy one now.
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