• Housing mentioned 19 times
• All were vague with no specifics for either PRS or SRS
• Levelling up – Devolved to local authorities
  Affordable housing 2021 spending review £24 Bn
  Ambition to deliver 300,000 new homes – developers: sustainability “nutrient neutral sites”
  Support for veterans
• Landlord association, iHowz, disappointed Chancellor fails to announce any new support for housing
• Budget restated 2021 commitment to affordable housing and “ambition” to deliver 300,000 new homes
• No unfreezing of the LHA No removal of landlord tax surcharges No funding for retrofit energy and carbon works
• Not even extra funding to get the courts working.
• Removing the pensions cap and raising contribution limits are of little interest to most landlords, who are unable to shield their income through pension contributions beyond the cap of £3,600
• This government can’t even tell us what EPC/MEES requirements they want us to meet in 2025, two years after their consultation ended.

The good news is the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is forecasting inflation to fall from 10.7% at the end of the last quarter to 2.9% by the end of 2023. This is faster than previously expected and reduces pressure on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee to continue raising interest rates beyond the next meeting on the 23rd of March.

However, the OBR is predicting the economy to retract by 0.2% over the course of 2023.