Call to scrap stamp duty for pensioners who downsize

PENSIONERS in large homes should be let off stamp duty fees to encourage them to move to smaller properties, a leading think tank recommends.

The study, to be published by the Policy Exchange tomorrow, also suggests purpose-built homes for “ageing baby boomers” would encourage more people to move and “free up more family homes for younger generations”.

Baby boomers were those born in the years following the Second World War, when there was a temporary marked increase in the birth rate.

The Building for the Baby Boomers report says the changes “would release family homes on to local housing markets, and give baby boomers the chance to access housing wealth they have stored up in spare bedrooms”.

More than one million homes in England with two or more spare bedrooms are lived in by one person aged 65 or over living alone – one fifth of all homes that are under-occupied.

Jack Airey, the author of the report, said: “Building more homes suited to older people will allow more retirees to live in a house that supports them to lead healthy and happy lives.

“It will also give more people the opportunity to downsize and draw down their housing equity, releasing money for retirement and saving money by moving to a home which is easier and cheaper to maintain.”

Lord Best, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People, said the report “will help the UK toward the tipping point when all of us baby boomers see downsizing as a positive, natural progression in life”.