Post-COVID Policy Proposals in the Devolved Nations

Since the lockdown started in March, RICS has been working closely with the devolved administrations in providing feasible solutions to assist market reactivation; for example, we were instrumental in the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments’ decision to reduce residential taxation (SDLT, LBTT and LTT respectively); and our Beyond COVID-19 Guides on safe reopening of markets were recognised or endorsed by devolved administrations.

In addition to this activity, and over the summer, RICS engaged with professionals operating in the residential, commercial, and construction and infrastructure sectors to elicit views on post-COVID market conditions, and what the policy or legislation the devolved Governments can introduce to alleviate some of the downward pressure.

In the main, there were shared concerns over the pipeline of work which would have a negative impact on supply chain management and a slow reactivation of market activity.

Through our member engagement programme, we have devised nation-specific policy proposals that, if introduced by devolved Government administrations, should kick start activity in our core sectors.

These have been broken down by nation and sector, and are available to download below.