MPs have voted overwhelmingly against scrapping stamp duty – but Bradley Thomas, MP for Bromsgrove, is among those whose vigour to get rid of the outdated levy remains undimmed.
Thomas said the abolition of the homebuyer’s tax has been estimated to make an average saving of £6,800 to people wanting to move to Bromsgrove and the surrounding villages.
A property market blocker
Stamp duty is a key blocker to purchasing homes for first time buyers and moving home, which is why the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, announced plans to abolish it for the family home (primary residence).
Scrapping Stamp Duty would help young people to get a foot on the housing ladder, help young families to buy a bigger home if they want to grow their family and remove a key obstacle older people face when wanting to downsize.
The Conservative party says it wants to remove barriers to homeownership.
Mr Thomas said: “I implore the Government to put at the centre of their fiscal plans the scale of ambition that hard-working people have every single day when they set their alarms, go out to work and do the right thing for their families.
“The Government must realise that pulling the right fiscal levers and cutting the right taxes will stimulate the very activity that will drive the growth they are so desperate to achieve.”
Voted down 329 v 103
Given the size of the Labour majority in the House of Commons, the vote was, unsurprisingly, voted down – 103 ayes to 329 noes.
To compound this, Rachael Reeves’s autumn budget, which will be announced on November 26, is expected to bring more bad news for the taxpayer.
