Make stamp duty a sellers’ tax, urges Tory MP

MINISTERS will be urged to reform stamp duty into “a seller’s not a buyer’s tax” to kick-start the housing market and give a boost to first-time buyers.

John Stevenson, Conservative MP for Carlisle, will make the case in a Westminster Hall debate, to which the Government will have to respond.

It would help hundreds of thousands of first-time buyers, who pay an average of £3,500 stamp duty on their first property or about £10,000 in London where properties are more expensive.

The Daily Telegraph is campaigning to remove stamp duty amid fears it is stifling the housing market.

Mr Stevenson said his proposals would see stamp duty become “a seller’s tax, not a buyer’s tax” and “help the market” adding that he did not believe sellers would “bump up the price” to cover the cost of the tax. He said: “In London the stamp duty rates are really knackering the top end of the market.

“This might go some way to helping that as well because it means the person selling the property is paying the tax, which might make the buyer more willing to come into the market.”

A survey by Yorkshire Building Society found that 60 per cent of people who rent say this would help them to get on the housing ladder.

The building society said reform of the tax is “long overdue” and supported Mr Stevenson’s bid to move the stamp duty from the buyer to the seller.

It pointed out that last year 267,000 first-time buyers paid stamp duty, a 9 per cent increase year on year.

“Everyone recognises, however, that it is also vital to increase the availability of housing,” it added.

“If the Chancellor had switched to a seller’s tax, he could have helped growing families trying to move to a bigger home, which in itself would free up homes for first-time buyers.”