One young Londoner’s Budget wishlist

Having grown up in west London, and now at the beginning of my career here, mine is pretty simple.

I want London to be a place people can afford to stay, while continuing to attract people from around the world to build their lives and put down roots here. Perhaps I’m biased, but everyone should have the chance to call the best city in the world home.

The built environment has an important role to play in making that possible, with plenty of areas where the right intervention could make a real difference.

Support for first-time buyers is already high on the agenda, with the Government’s new Your First Home scheme set to offer an equity loan to help buyers onto the ladder. But if we’re serious about making home ownership more accessible, stamp duty should be part of the conversation too.

In London, first-time buyers purchasing above £500,000 lose their relief altogether, a threshold that is not easily avoided in the capital. Raising it would better reflect London’s housing market and ensure more buyers can benefit from the support designed for them. And if we’re thinking radically, perhaps it’s worth asking a bigger question; should we be taxing people for buying a home at all?

But enough about my own home-buying ambitions. Of course, helping people purchase a home is only one side of the equation – we need to keep building them too.

The Government has already put an ambitious programme of planning and housing reform in motion and as development relies on long-term investment, giving that programme the chance to bed-in would provide some welcome certainty for those committing capital to projects that can take years to deliver.

Where the Budget could make a difference is in backing that ambition with the resources to deliver it. More investment in local authority planning teams would give councils the people and expertise to work through complex applications and make decisions more efficiently. Reforming the system is one thing, making sure it has the capacity to work is another.

My London bias declared, there is life beyond the M25. The same principle, giving places the tools they need to support growth, applies across the country.

Greater fiscal devolution could be part of that. Giving regional mayors a greater share of the business rates generated in their areas, and allowing that revenue to be reinvested in transport, infrastructure and regeneration, would create a more direct link between development and local investment. Perhaps this incentive would oil the wheels of the planning process too.

And if that gives more people the opportunity to live and thrive in the places they love, I think that’s money well spent.