Government considers property policy change

News Category: Legal

The government is planning on looking at alternative ways in which landlords could be taxed on land price increase, reports suggest.

Industry magazine Building has claimed that the Treasury is considering exploring alternatives to the current planning gain supplement (PGS) rules after strong pressure from landlords and other industry figures.

At the moment, the PGS rules aim to tax increases in land values gained once planning permission had been awarded.

However, in recent weeks the policy has been attacked by the British Property Federation (BPF), the Royal Town Planning Institute and the British Retail Consortium.

Now, the publication reports that government minister John Healey has been seeing whether there is government support for a different policy direction.

The Conservatives have already said they would scrap the tax. The party's planning spokesperson, Michael Gove, told Building.co.uk: "We'd abolish the PGS - absolutely. It is insufficiently local and creates a risk of benefit that accrues from a development not being spent there."