16 days left on the LISA consultation, Stamp Duty untouched

Somewhere between a friend's landlord panicking over a new rule and a consultation email you meant to open and didn't, most people who own or want to own property in the UK have quietly stopped trying to track every legal change this year. That's a reasonable response to twelve months of moving goalposts. It's also how you end up missing a deadline that actually affects your money.

This month, one date matters more than the rest. The consultation on a new First-Time Buyer ISA, the scheme set to eventually replace the Lifetime ISA, closes on 18 August 2026, sixteen days from today (GOV.UK / HM Treasury, consultation opened 23 June 2026). Everything else below either confirms what didn't change or flags a smaller shift most people haven't heard about yet. Bank Rate, for what it's worth, stays exactly where it was: held at 3.75% after the MPC's 6-3 vote on 30 July 2026, with the next decision due 17 September 2026 (Bank of England).

The First-Time Buyer ISA: 16 days to have your say

The proposed replacement for the Lifetime ISA differs from it in one important way: instead of a 25% bonus paid monthly into your account as you save, which is then clawed back at a punishing 25% rate if you withdraw for anything other than a first home or retirement, the new scheme would pay its bonus at exchange of contracts. No upper age limit has been proposed, unlike the LISA's cut-off at 39 for opening a new account. The contribution limit, bonus rate and any property price cap are all still undecided, and the consultation is where those numbers get settled (GOV.UK / HM Treasury, opened 23 June 2026, closing 18 August 2026). The government has said existing LISA holders won't be worse off, and a launch date of around April 2028 is currently pencilled in.

So if you're actively saving in a Lifetime ISA toward a deposit, this is not a reason to pause. Keep contributing at your current pace, because stopping now to wait for a scheme that's eighteen months away and still undecided in every important detail is the more expensive choice, not the cautious one.

Stamp Duty stays as it is, for now

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has reportedly ruled out changing or scrapping Stamp Duty Land Tax in the Budget dated 26 November 2026, and separately rejected merging SDLT and council tax into a single annual property charge, at least for now (Mortgage Solutions, 28 July 2026). That closes off, for the time being, the Fairer Share-style proposal his team had been examining. The existing thresholds stand: 0% up to £300,000 for first-time buyers with relief disappearing entirely above £500,000, and standard residential bands starting at 0% up to £125,000, rising to 12% above £1.5 million.

So if you've been holding off a purchase in the hope of a stamp duty cut landing in November, stop waiting on that basis. The maths points toward budgeting for today's bands rather than a change that currently has no live proposal behind it, and you can read the full breakdown of who actually pays what in our Stamp Duty threshold explainer.

Wales quietly made portfolio purchases more expensive

While England's SDLT bands stood still, Wales moved. The minimum rate on Land Transaction Tax's multiple-dwellings relief rose from 1% to 3%, in force from 13 February 2026 (Welsh Government written statement, 20 January 2026). Multiple-dwellings relief is the mechanism landlords and portfolio buyers use when purchasing several units in one transaction, and a higher floor rate means a genuinely larger tax bill on exactly that kind of deal, on top of the higher-rate residential surcharge that already applies to additional properties in Wales.

So if you're a landlord weighing a multi-unit purchase in Wales this year, get the LTT quoted properly before you offer rather than assuming last year's figure still applies, since a change this specific is easy to miss if you're basing your numbers on an older calculation, including one from an article on Section 24's impact on buy-to-let margins elsewhere in England.

Making Tax Digital: the penalty holiday doesn't cover everything

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment became mandatory from 6 April 2026 for landlords and sole traders with qualifying gross income over £50,000, based on the 2024-25 tax year, and it's already live. The one genuinely new development: HMRC has confirmed it won't issue penalty points for missed quarterly-update deadlines during the 2026-27 tax year, a soft-landing concession while people adjust to the new system (HMRC / GOV.UK guidance, May 2026). That relief stops at the quarterly updates. Your year-end final declaration, due 31 January 2028, is still penalised as normal if it's late or wrong.

So if you're a landlord who's been treating the quarterly requirement as optional because "there's no penalty anyway," that's a false read of the rule. Keep submitting on time regardless, because the record-keeping habit you build now is what makes the January 2028 return straightforward rather than a scramble through eighteen months of receipts.

Leasehold reform inches closer, still not law

The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, published 27 January 2026, proposes a ground rent cap, an effective ban on leasehold for most new flats, and the abolition of forfeiture. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee published its pre-legislative scrutiny report on 27 May 2026, calling the draft a "significant step" while flagging changes it still wants to see. An amended Bill is now expected to be formally introduced to Parliament this autumn, with Royal Assent targeted for mid-2027 (House of Commons Library, Charles Russell Speechlys). Meanwhile, several Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 provisions, including the immediate right to extend your lease or buy your freehold without your freeholder's Right to Manage costs attached, are already in force today.

So if you're sitting on a short lease and wondering whether to act now or wait for the bigger reform, act now. The provisions already in force are real and usable, and the draft Bill's benefits are realistically eighteen months away at the earliest, with details that could still change before it becomes law.

Right to Buy reform cleared the Lords, still no start date

The Social Housing Bill, which carries the confirmed Right to Buy reforms, had its House of Lords second reading on 1 June 2026, having been introduced 14 May 2026 following the King's Speech (Local Government Association briefing, Today's Conveyancer). The substance is unchanged from what we've covered before: a minimum qualifying tenancy extended from three years to ten, a discount that starts at 5% of value and rises 1% a year to a 15%-of-value or cash-cap ceiling, cost floor protection extended from 15 to 30 years, and a new 35-year new-build exemption. You can read the full mechanics in our Right to Buy discount explainer. Implementation is still described only as "later in 2026/27," with no firm commencement date confirmed.

So if you're a council tenant close to your third year and weighing whether to apply before the tougher ten-year rule bites, that window hasn't closed yet, but it's narrowing with every month the Bill moves closer to Royal Assent, so treat any eligibility close to the current three-year mark as a "check now" situation, not a "check next year" one.

One more thing worth a single line if you're a landlord: the Renters' Rights Act's 31 July backstop for issuing Section 21 court claims has now passed, and we ran the full cost of a lapsed notice, and what restarting under Section 8 involves, in yesterday's piece, so we haven't repeated that maths here.

What this means for you

Most people who run through a list like this end up doing one of two things: nothing at all, because none of it feels urgent yet, or panicking about all of it equally, which wastes time on the parts that don't need action. Neither is the right call here. The maths points toward exactly one genuinely time-limited action this month: if you have a view on how the First-Time Buyer ISA should work, or you're currently saving in a Lifetime ISA and want the transition handled sensibly, respond to the consultation before 18 August, because the version of this scheme that ends up in law is being shaped right now, not after it launches.

Everything else on this list is a "note it and move on" item rather than a "do something today" one, with two exceptions. If you're a landlord or investor buying multiple units in Wales, get your Land Transaction Tax quoted properly before you offer. And if you're sitting on a leasehold flat or a council tenancy near an eligibility threshold, act on the rules as they exist now rather than waiting for reform that's still a year or more away and could still change in the drafting.