How the Budget affects your land | Addland

The Autumn Budget has brought some interesting news for landowners, developers and the agricultural sector.

In this guide, we’ll take you through the information you need to know to understand how the budget allocation might impact you, your land or your property.

The budget looks to support a greener future

To support the UK's target to halt biodiversity decline by 2030, the government has allocated over £250 million to protect and restore nature in England.

This isn’t the only green investment they are making this Autumn. £625 million will be allocated to the Nature for Climate Fund. This is to help meet the government's commitment to plant at least 7500 hectares of trees each year by 2025 and restore 35,000 hectares of peatland. Landowners can apply through Defra’s eSourcing portal and receive a grant.   

Support for farmers to invest in their business

Part of the budget supports farm owners and others in the agricultural sector. It allows businesses to invest more in plant and machinery. The annual investment allowance has been increased from £200,000 to £1,000,000, during the period from 1st January 2022 to 31st March 2023.    

As a bonus, sole traders, partnerships and companies will be able to carry back losses for three years, rather than just one. This means that anyone who is investing using the super-deduction can carry this back three years to reclaim tax paid during the extended period. 

Plans to level up the UK unfold

As a developer or landowner, you’ll be interested to know that the UK-wide Levelling Up Fund begins with £1.7 billion of investment in local areas. Plans to redevelop town centres and high streets and invest in cultural and heritage sites are well underway. Renovation of Inverness Castle and an upgrade of the Isle of Scilly ferry have been allocated a portion of the pie.

With investment being made in such areas it may help rejuvenate towns and increase property prices as a result. Changes to the planning system also mean that development land is becoming more readily available, often in places like town centres.

Housing development plans soar

The housing development sector was allocated some of the budget from the pot.

To tackle the housing crisis the chancellor confirmed an investment of £11.5 billion in the Affordable Homes Programme. 65% of this funding will be allocated to homes outside of London and brownfield sites will be targeted for the development of greener, affordable homes. This project aims to bring 1,500 hectares of brownfield land back into use.  

Alongside the development of affordable housing comes improved transport projects. Areas including West Midlands, South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester will be receiving just shy of £7 billion for the improvements. Where there are good travel links there are inevitably more job opportunities and higher demand for homes in the area. 

Developer tax and grants

If you are a developer with annual profits above £25 million then you’ll be keen to understand the announcement of the Residential Property Developer Tax (RPDT). This tax will go towards the £5 billion that has been allocated to remediating buildings that have unsafe cladding. The tax will be charged at 4% on annual developer profits above £25 million and comes into force in February 2022.

In other property news, there is a £5,000 government grant on offer for households to replace gas boilers with low-carbon heat pumps.

Business rates discounted 

The Chancellor announced that from 2023 every business will be able to make improvements to their property, without paying extra business rates for 12 months. Together, with the green investment relief, the investment incentives total £750 million.

To support those industries hardest hit by the pandemic, the chancellor also announced that for one year there will be 50% business rates for discounts in retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. This is a business tax cut worth almost £1.7 billion.