Stamp duty hikes are paralysing the market
Figures uggest stamp duty increases introduced by George Osborne are paralysing the housing market and costing the Treasury hundreds of millions of pounds in lost revenue. The figures from the ONS show that HMRC received £4.27bn from stamp duty between April and July. However, that was £364m – or 7.9% - less than in the same period last year. Meanwhile, a YouGov survey has found that scrapping stamp duty for the over 65s would encourage nearly 3m pensioners to downsize and free up large homes for younger families. The poll found that 22% of older people would be more likely to move if they were given a one-off exemption from paying the tax .
