As far as the mortgage industry is concerned, the bigger announcement has come not from the Autumn Statement but out of Threadneedle Street last week with the confirmation that Funding For Lending was being repositioned to now just focus on business lending.
The chancellor made reference to this and praised the Bank of England for keeping rates low while simultaneously trying to cool the housing market down.
Another aspect of this is the announcement that foreign nationals who own second properties in the UK will now be subject to capital gains tax. This may start to slow down the demand for London’s prime property from overseas investors.
Clearly the government is worried about the housing market moving too quickly, especially in London and south-east England, so they are attempting the rather tricky manoeuvre of making sure there is still an availability of mortgages to as many people as possible, at a higher loan-to-value as possible - bolstered by confirmation of Aldermore and Virgin Money joining Help to Buy - as well as attempting to keep a lid on house prices.
This is borne up by no further announcements regarding the mortgage industry, and no cut or removal of land tax stamp duty.
Although there was an acknowledgment that residential construction is growing at its fastest rate for 10 years – there is still a requirement for an extra 100,000 houses in south-east Engand, and that problem may be partly alleviated by the £1bn fund (bribe!) to developers to build more houses more quickly.
For our industry this is a holding statement. I suspect that come the Budget next year, with more than one eye focused on the election in 2015, Mr Osborne may have a few further fillips for current and existing borrowers.
Alistair Hargreaves is executive mortgage and protection consultant at John Charcol.
