Final sittings of the Finance (No 2) Bill 2022-23 debates

The public bill committee convened for the third sitting with a brief discussion of clause 313 ‘transactions funded with the assistance of a public subsidy’. Financial secretary to the Treasury Victoria Atkins said this would amend the stamp duty land tax rules to ensure that registered social landlords were exempt from the duty when buying property for those fleeing conflict such as from Ukraine and Afghanistan using funding allocated under Local Government Act 2003 s 31.

Angela Eagle (Lab) asked whether the scheme was available to other homeless people fleeing war-torn countries. Ms Atkins confirmed that the scheme was not restricted to specific nationalities and was ‘designed to meet all local authority social housing needs’.

The clause was ordered to stand part of the bill.

Deposit schemes

The debate progressed to clause 314 ‘deposit schemes’. This amends VATA 1994 to allow secondary legislation that will...