Meeting of the Parliament 18 February 2026 [Draft]
I will be brief. On many recent occasions, the Government has introduced SSIs that give exemptions from land and buildings transaction tax for several different purposes, whether it is for freeports, economic investment zones or, as in this case, co-ownership authorised contractual schemes. There have been questions about whether such exemptions could give rise to opportunities for tax avoidance.
When proposing the SSI at committee, the Minister for Public Finance was unable to give a clear explanation as to why the exemptions should be used in this case, nor could he give reassurance that a property transaction could not simply be dressed up as a financial transaction by means of investment vehicles.
I am not convinced that there is no risk of allowing for tax avoidance through measures like this, so the Greens will vote against the SSI.