Stamp duty deters the elderly from downsizing

SIR – Stamp duty has rightly been identified as a major reason why older couples are unwilling to move to a smaller property and free up their old home (report, September 24). Perhaps less obvious is that it also encourages families to extend rather than move. When I was chairman of our local planning committee, we saw a steady stream of applications that have substantially reduced the number of smaller homes available for first-time buyers or older people looking to downsize.

Until this tax on mobility goes, we will never have optimum use of our housing stock.

Phil Cutcher

Malmesbury, Wiltshire SIR – It’s not emotional support that pensioners need to help them downsize; the planning laws in rural areas need to be relaxed.

Here in north Dorset it’s almost impossible to switch from a large and under-used family home because small properties are a rarity.

Increasingly restrictive planning policies have made the countryside a ridiculously expensive place in which to live, with councils exacerbating the problem by refusing permission for potential conversions. Small areas of land, ideal for a nice bungalow, have been given protection from development even though they fall within the village envelope.

I know several pensioners who are willing to downsize but wish to stay in the same area. The bureaucrats have decreed otherwise.

Kate Graeme-Cook

Blandford Forum, Dorset SIR – The only way to help the older generation to downsize would be to get rid of stamp duty altogether for the over-65s.

Then again, my husband and I downsized but, at the age of 70, are just about to upsize because we cannot stand living and working together in such a small house.

Julie Juniper

Bridport, Dorset