Budget boost for annual investment allowance and housebuilding
19 March 2014A big boost to the annual investment allowance and further measures to support housebuilding were some of the standout measures in chancellor George Osborne’s Budget statement this week.
The annual investment allowance for businesses investing in plant or machinery is being doubled from £250,000 to £500,000 from next month and extended to 2015.
Housebuilding support came in the form of an extension for the Help to Buy equity loan scheme until 2020. Mr Osborne said a further £6bn was being invested to help 120,000 more households purchase a new-build home.
The NHBC said the extension would provide the housebuilding industry confidence and certainty to plan for the future. Some £200m of public investment will also be made for a new “Garden City” development of 15,000 homes at Ebbsfleet, Kent.
“Taken all together, the housing policies I announce today will support over 200,000 new homes for families,” said the chancellor.
The Structural Timber Association (STA) welcomed the Ebbsfleet and Barking Riverside development plans. “These large scale projects offer the UK the opportunity to grasp the benefits of building in timber, which is a modern and quick method of construction that will allow the government to tick all the boxes in terms of environmental performance through construction and the life of the buildings,” said STA chief executive Andrew Carpenter.
Meanwhile, a fuel duty rise planned for September was cancelled.
