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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Politics
Sean Morrison

General Election 2019 PolicyWatch: Tories plan higher stamp duty for non-UK residents as Lib Dems promise 300,000 homes a year

The Tories have pledged to increase the stamp duty rate for non-UK residents and the Lib Dems are promising to building 300,000 homes a year.

Campaigning is well under way for the general election and keeping up with the latest promises, policies and pledges from the parties can be difficult.

Here are latest announcements on issues from parties as they seek to win your vote on December 12.

Liberal Democrats: 300,000 homes per year

A Liberal Democrat government would commit to building 300,000 new homes a year.

A third of the homes planned by the Lib Dems would be social rented homes, with a £10 billion capital infrastructure investment to support this.

In the year to June 2019, a total of 173,660 house builds were completed, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

On top of any private sector homes built, Labour has committed to building 150,000 a year in its manifesto - two-thirds of which would be council houses, with the rest being "genuinely affordable homes".

The Lib Dems would also set up a "Rent to Own" model for social housing and provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30.

Conservatives: Higher stamp duty rate for non-UK residents

Foreign individuals and companies buying properties in the UK will be forced to pay more stamp duty under Conservative proposals to help more Britons get on the housing ladder.

Buyers who are not tax resident in the UK will be made to pay a higher rate of stamp duty land tax if the Tories win a majority at the General Election.

The surcharge will be levied on top of all other stamp duty payable and charged at 3 per cent.

The party estimates the measure will raise up to £120 million a year, which would be directed at programmes to tackle rough sleeping.

Currently, foreign individuals and companies can buy homes as easily as UK residents.

Listen to today's episode of The Leader:

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