Stamp duty prevents a mobile market for jobs

SIR – Dr Richard Austen-baker (Letters, February 19) is wrong about stamp duty. He states that, if it were cut, any money saved by the buyer would simply be added to the price asked for by the seller. This ignores the fact that stamp duty prevents sales occurring in the first place.

Suppose, for example, that a manager on £50,000 a year, living in a £500,000 house, wants to move to a new area for a new job paying £60,000. Stamp duty and the other costs of a sideways move come to £20,000. With 40 per cent income tax, the manager has to earn £33,000 extra before tax to get that £20,000 to pay for the move. That’s more than the entire pay rise for the next three years.

Unsurprisingly, the manager decides that the move is not worth it – so he stays put, damaging the efficient allocation of labour, and no stamp duty is paid at all. Everybody loses. David Bartholomew

Henley-on-thames, Oxfordshire SIR – James Lee (Letters, February 17), who discusses the prolonged procedure for conveyancing houses in England and Wales, only needs to go north of the border.

In the Sixties I was appointed to a post in Scotland. I took a long weekend off to travel there. On the Friday I looked at three houses and decided which one I preferred. On the Saturday morning I went to a solicitor, who agreed to act for me and drafted out a missive (letter) making an offer, which he passed to the vendor’s solicitor. On the Monday afternoon he phoned me saying that the offer had been accepted in writing by the vendor, with an upset date of two weeks.

Since then I have bought two other properties in Scotland, and just as quickly. There are no doubt some good reasons for the more cumbersome procedures in England, but one wonders why they can’t be speeded up. Brian Smith

Dunfermline, Fife