Stamp Duty Land Tax (paid on house purchases) should be reformed, with tax band thresholds linked to the regional average house price. Purchases up to the regional average house price should be zero-rated. In addition, the 'slab' approach of current taxation will be changed to an incremental approach, where only the amount above a threshold is taxed at that rate.
Improve rental rights, such that residential tenants cannot be evicted if they are paying market rate rent and have not damaged the property. Create a general principle that for tenants a property is their home and core to their life, whereas for landlords it is but a piece of property and simply a financial asset.
Personal income tax is calculated on income generated prior to expenses being deducted. But in business, corporation tax is calculated on any profit generated after expenses have been deducted from income. It is proposed that a study is conducted into the feasability and fairness of calculating them both in the same way: either personal income tax being revised and only calculated after household costs have been deducted (ie taxing household surplus or amount put into savings rather than income), or corporation tax being calculated on the basis of revenue alone.
@philipjohn - over 9 years ago
Can we ✋ on this one for the moment? I have an in progress change that effectively adopts the Generation Rent manifesto
They look quite good, but at a glance a bit weak.
Where is their specific policy on improving security of tenure?
I found some horribly privileged comments by landlords, which showed no understanding how bad it is to have your home at someone else's whimsy. On 5 Oct 2014 07:59, "philipjohn" [email protected] wrote:
Can we : hand: on this one for the moment? I have an in progress change that effectively adopts the Generation Rent http://generationrent.org manifesto
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/217#issuecomment-57928471 .
I like this idea. @philipjohn is there anything in your proposal that conflicts with this? If not, I'd suggest we consider adopting it now anyway and patching further later on.
👍
@PaulJRobinson - over 9 years ago
👍
— Sent from Mailbox
On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 9:38 AM, James Smith [email protected] wrote:
I like this idea. @philipjohn is there anything in your proposal that conflicts with this? If not, I'd suggest we consider adopting it now anyway and patching further later on.
👍
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/217#issuecomment-57988470
I suspect that there are useful things to learn / copy from the German system here — it's generally regarded as being very strong on renter rights, with most contractual terms set by law, including rent increases, termination, etc.
One potential downside, if not handled correctly, is that although these sorts of approaches can provide much stronger rights once you become a tenant, it's harder to become such in the first place, as landlords have a strong incentive to become much stricter in who they accept.
+1 for take policy from Germany. On 7 Oct 2014 08:54, "Tony Bowden" [email protected] wrote:
I suspect that there are useful things to learn / copy from the German system here — it's generally regarded as being very strong on renter rights, with most contractual terms set by law, including rent increases, termination, etc.
One potential downside, if not handled correctly, is that although these sorts of approaches can provide much stronger rights once you become a tenant, it's harder to become such in the first place, as landlords have a strong incentive to become much stricter in who they accept.
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/217#issuecomment-58149090 .
@philipjohn - over 9 years ago
Nothing conflicting with my work-in-progress here so let's 👍 and I'll refine as part of my PR
The OpenPolitics Manifesto
@frabcus - over 9 years ago
Improve many harms caused by a basic inequity due to the fundamental scarcity of land.