Fiscal Policy & Economic Backdrop
Summer 2016

While fiscal policy remained intact post EU vote, on 4th August the Bank of England announced that interest rates would be cut to a new historic low of 0.25%. This was the first change in seven years following a unanimous vote by the Monetary Policy Committee. A suite of other measures to help mitigate the impact of Brexit was revealed, including an extension of the quantitative easing programme, with a further £10 billion created to buy corporate bonds and a new scheme to provide up to £100 billion to banks to help them pass on the base rate cut. As expected, from 6 April 2017 offshore companies holding UK residential property will no longer be ‘excluded property’ where the shares are owned by a non-UK domiciled individual or an offshore trust.

Mishcon de Reya ‘Countdown to 2017’, August 2016
Bank of England Inflation Report, August 2016