Comms update: NRLA responds to Budget national insurance media speculation
As many of our members will know, speculation ahead of this year’s Budget reached fever pitch last week, with reports in The Times suggesting that the Treasury will confirm that National Insurance will be levied on rental income receiving widespread coverage across UK media.
In response to these (still to be announced) proposals, the NRLA’s communications team hit the ground running by issuing insightful, impactful commentary articulating our position on possible tax changes in November.
We argued that changes along the lines of what has been mooted in the press will only result in higher rents for tenants and will further stifle investment in the private rented sector.
Responding to the ongoing pre-Budget predictions, Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, took the opportunity to state how “punitive tax hikes on the rental sector will lead only to rents going up, hitting the very households the Government wants to protect.”
Ben also urged the chancellor to “use the tax system to encourage long term investment in new good quality housing”, highlighting a key call to action which the NRLA has made over recent years.
Our media push produced significant press coverage across an array of UK media outlets, including the radio station with UK’s largest weekly audience, BBC Radio 2. Ben participated in a discussion with the Resolution Foundation about The Times’ story, in the process focusing on how any National Insurance proposals of this kind will have only a detrimental impact on the market. You can listen to a clipping from Ben’s interview with Jeremy Vine here.
Ben, along with the NRLA’s chief policy officer Chris Norris, also spoke with a wide range of other broadcast media outlets such as LBC, Times Radio, and LBC News. These appearances included interviews on shows hosted by LBC presenters Nick Ferrari and Iain Dale. If you’re keen to hear more of the points our spokespeople raised in the media last week, you can check out one of Ben’s appearances on LBC here.
Besides the broadcast coverage, Ben’s comment was also featured in outlets such as the Standard, the Telegraph, GB News, The Sun, Landlord Today and Property Industry Eye.
But we didn’t take time out from our work on other campaigns during last week’s media frenzy. We also set up an interview for Ben with Good Morning Britain, one of the most watched UK breakfast shows. Ben provided a valuable contribution to a discussion on a report which studied the actions of rogue landlords in the sector, during which he observed all appropriate enforcement measures to deal with these individuals.
Whatever the impact of the next Budget is on our members, we’ll be doing our utmost to advocate on their behalf both before and after November’s announcement. If you have any questions with regards to our campaigning, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected].
