Richard Nurse

In Britain today there is a tax that punishes ambition, traps families in the wrong homes, and quietly freezes our housing market in place. You all know the one I mean. Stamp Duty. It is a punitive tax on moving house. And that means it is a tax on living your life. It punishes the young couple trying to buy their first home. It punishes the growing family who need another bedroom for a new baby. It punishes the worker who wants to move across the country for a better job. And it punishes pensioners who would happily downsize - freeing up larger homes for younger families - but simply cannot afford the tax bill. The result is predictable. Fewer people move. Fewer homes come onto the market. And the ladder of home ownership becomes harder and harder to climb. A healthy housing market should allow people to move to the right home, in the right place, at the right stage of life. Stamp Duty does the opposite. It locks people in place. Abolishing it would unlock Britain. Young people would find it easier to buy their first property. Couples could upsize to start a family. Older homeowners could downsize without being punished by the taxman. And when people move, the whole economy moves with them. More people moving means more work for builders, painters and renovators. More customers for local DIY shops. More business for furniture shops and tradespeople. A single house move sets off a chain reaction of economic activity in communities right across the country. Estate agents @WinkworthUK, who I have been out with this week, see buyers and sellers every day who have to face hugely punitive stamp duty bills. And the evidence shows just how damaging stamp duty is. According to the @OBR_UK, a one percentage point increase in stamp duty can reduce property transactions by between five and seven per cent. Yet on this Government’s watch the stamp duty due on a £300,000 home will have doubled during their time in office. But beyond the economics lies something deeper. We @Conservatives believe that owning your own home gives you a real stake in society. It gives people roots in their community and pride in their neighbourhood. So a future Conservative Government will abolish Stamp Duty on primary residences altogether. Finished. Gone. And we’ll pay for it by getting a grip on government spending - including £23 billion in welfare reform because responsible tax cuts must be funded and must support economic growth. If Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are serious about growth - about unlocking opportunity and fixing Britain’s broken housing market - they should do the same. Because a country where people cannot afford to move is a country where social mobility stalls. But a country where families can settle where they choose, not where they’re stuck? That is a freer, fairer, more dynamic Britain. And it starts by scrapping Stamp Duty.