B&B issues pre-Budget wish list

Bradford & Bingley has outlined what it hopes chancellor Gordon Brown will consider in his Budget on March 16 to offer first-time buyers assistance.
The lender is calling on the chancellor to introduce tax relief on all pure life and income protection polices to encourage consumers to ensure they have enough
protection in place.

Nigel Newland, head of wealth products at Bradford & Bingley, says: "With an estimated £2trillion protection gap, too many families are being left exposed if one parent falls ills or even worse dies.

"Offering tax relief on such products would help encourage more people to protect themselves and their families from the poverty trap at a time of crisis when the last thing they need to worry about is money."

Bradford & Bingley would also like to see a fairer system introduced to help out many first-time buyers struggling to get a foothold on the property ladder.

In particular, properties between £60,000 and £150,000 - the bracket that many first time properties fall in to - should have stamp duty either abolished or at least reduced to 0.5%.

David Bitner, head of mortgages for Bradford & Bingley, says: "Once again I am calling fora major overhaul of Stamp Duty Land Tax. Along with many others in the industry, I have been calling for this for years and it continues to fall on deaf ears.

"First time buyers continue to face the extra burden of Stamp Duty at a time when they need every penny for a deposit.

"The current tiers have to be restructured to reflect current house prices which have risen dramatically over the last few years."

Bradford & Bingley also wants the imbalance between the Inheritance Tax threshold and property values to be assessed.

Bradford & Bingley hopes the IHT threshold will be increased to £439,000.

Bitner continues: "It was disappointing that the chancellor chose to only nominally increase the IHT last year by 3%.

"The inconsistency between the current IHT threshold and the increase in property values has to be
addressed.

"The threshold should mirror prices and therefore be set at £439,000. As it stands IHT is little more than a stealth tax for homeowners."