The Daily Telegraph

No 10 rejects Johnson’s call for stamp duty cut

- By Steven Swinford

DOWNING STREET has rejected Boris Johnson’s call to slash stamp duty further to help more people get on the property ladder.

In an article for The Daily Telegraph yesterday, the former foreign secretary called for cuts to “absurdly high” levels of stamp duty.

He wrote: “This is meant to be Britain, the great homeowning democracy, but we now have lower rates of owner-occupation for the under-40s than France and Germany.”

Speaking to the Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday, James Brokenshir­e, the Housing Secretary, said he agreed that stamp duty played an “important part” in fixing the housing market.

Mr Brokenshir­e said: “My focus is actually dealing with some of the challenges that Boris highlighte­d in The Telegraph. How we see greater home ownership, how we actually drive that housing agenda, and I look forward to discussing that with Boris and other colleagues.”

However, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “When it comes to stamp duty, the Government has taken action to seek to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder. The number of people who have benefited from that cut in stamp duty is now 121,500 first-time buyers, who have saved an average of £1,700.”

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