60% of landlords believe this is the best thing Boris Johnson can do for them

A recent poll by Simply Business reveals over half of respondents believe pro-growth taxation is the best way to improve the lives of landlords.

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Last month Boris Johnson took up office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Whatever your political viewpoint, a change of government can present an opportunity to make positive changes.

With harsh regulatory reforms in the buy-to-let sector making life more challenging over recent years, we looked into five ways the new Prime Minister could help landlords.

Our five suggested ways to bring about positive change were:

• pro-growth taxation
• repossess properties fairly
• support vulnerable tenants
• root out criminal landlords
• reject rent controls

What’s the best thing the Prime Minister can do to help landlords?

The results are in: 60 per cent think pro-growth taxation is the most helpful thing the Prime Minister can do for landlords.

The 394 people who responded to the poll voted as follows:

Initiative	Votes
Pro-growth taxation	239
Reject rent controls	56
Repossess properties fairly	55
Root out criminal landlords	33
Support vulnerable tenants	11

How Boris Johnson could use pro-growth taxation to help landlords

According to the Adam Smith Institute, Stamp Duty is one avenue Boris Johnson could explore to use pro-growth taxation to support landlords.

They say that scrapping Stamp Duty would increase the efficiency of the housing market. This is because the tax adds to the high cost of going through the sale process and, in effect, puts people off selling their properties.

Getting rid of Stamp Duty would also make housing shortages less costly, says the Institute.

Five-point manifesto for housing market health

The results of our poll come as David Cox of ARLA Propertymark puts forward a five-point housing market manifesto that could give the Prime Minister food for thought.

The five key areas highlighted in his suggested manifesto are:

• tax incentives
• an open database for rogue landlords
• licensing of estate agents
• court system reform
• introduction of property MOTs

For now, we’ll have to wait and see what the Prime Minister’s next move for the sector will be.

If you have any further thoughts on how the government can support landlords, let us know in the comments below.