Chancellor criticised over stamp duty

Chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling has been criticised for not making major changes to stamp duty to help first-time buyers.

In his budget speech today the sole measure concerning the tax was to allow those entering shared ownership schemes to have the charge deferred until they owned 80 per cent of the equity in a property.

Responding to this situation, Abbey director of mortgages Nici Audhlam-Gardiner said the move on shared ownership was "welcome", but added the government should "do more to help" all other first-time buyers who were not part of the scheme, suggesting a raising of thresholds or an incremental system would be improvements on the status quo.

The National Association of Estate Agents was highly critical, with chief executive Peter Bolton King condemning the lack of any major change to the levy to help first-time buyers as "taxation gone mad".

Describing the increasing amount of revenue the government has been gaining from stamp duty while prices have risen as a "gravy train", he added: "He [Mr Darling] has failed the British homeowner again."

Many would-be first-time buyers may decide in the circumstances to examine the self-build option, which can avoid stamp duty.


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