It has been predicted by Land Securities that  the chancellor would introduce a land development tax in his pre-Budget report. Land Securities was disappointed with the plans of the government to introduce a land development tax, which is also called a planning gain supplement. The FTSE100 group made the warning, as it showed a stellar set of interim results that showed the pre-tax profits soaring by 89.2% to £1.18bn for the six months to September. It further said that they believe that such taxes represents a super tax and it also don’t pay attention to the present regime of capital profits.

Analysts and tax experts said that the warning from Land Securities was a hint that a planning gain supplement was likely. A property analyst said that the introduction of a land development tax wouldn’t be a good news. Mike Warburton, senior tax partner said that the Treasury didn’t say anything, but the rumour has started to make the rounds. He said that he would be surprised if a land development tax wasn’t mentioned in the pre-Budget report. He added that different types of land development taxes had been used in the past, and even though, a re-introduction wouldn’t be as aggressive as it was last year, there’re chances.  Warburton quipped that the idea of a land development tax has been doing the rounds in the background for some time. He added that the government should raise more money and it’s not going to lose votes by introducing the tax.

As per the British Property Federation, the commercial property industry makes 6 per cent of Britain’s GDP. It also attracts investment of up to 50 billion pounds per year.