A vocal group of around 50 Conservative right wing MPs wants an end to stamp duty – except for additional homes such as buy to lets and holiday properties.
The Conservative Growth Group of backbenchers is branding stamp duty as “unfair” and is urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that it be scrapped for owner occupeirs but not for second homes.
The group consists largely of those who served in the notorious short-lived administration led by Liz Truss last autumn.
The chair of the group, Ranil Jayawardena, has told the Daily Telegraph that stamp duty is “not at all Conservative and not very British” and adds: “We should be making it easier for people to get on and up the property ladder at an early age, and to climb down the property ladder in later life.
“People buy their home out of taxed income. Why double tax them for buying what for almost everyone is their biggest purchase?
“It punishes first-time buyers and second-steppers alike and makes it much more difficult to join the home-owning democracy.”
A response from HM Treasury says: “We’ve cut stamp duty on 98 per cent of all properties and just under half of all purchases pay no stamp duty at all.
“Stamp duty is an important source of government revenue, raising £14 billion in 2021-22 to help pay for the public services like the NHS, police and schools.”
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