Another online petition - this time against stamp duty surcharge

Another online petition has been launched against one of Chancellor George Osborne’s fiscal measures seen as an attack on the private rental sector.

The petition, which you can see here, takes up the cudgels on behalf of individual buy to let investors against the larger-scale and institutional landlords who - as the stamp duty surcharge now stands - will be exampt from the additional three per cent duty to be paid on all ‘additional’ BTL and second home purchases.

The petition reads:

“The Chancellor's decision to hike buy-to-let stamp duty on the back of removing relief on interest payments for buy-to-let investors is deeply unfair and represents a savage attack on private investors. The Chancellor is effectively mugging the savings of thousands of ‘strivers’ across the country.

“The government has decided to tax private individuals out of the Buy To Let market in favour of commercial organisations and those with more than 15 properties. This is in effect a 'land grab' that will remove the last route to decent pensions for average people and is effectively a tax on ‘strivers’. In short the government sees buy-to-let as the cause of the UK housing crisis, a view which is totally flawed and needs to be rethought.”

Earlier this year an online petition against Osborne’s clampdown on mortgage interest tax relief for landlords ended its six-month petitioning period without attracting the 100,000 signatures required to force the government into considering whether the subject should be debated once again in the House of Commons.