Chancellor Sajid Javid has put an end to all speculation suggesting he could shift stamp duty on to sellers from buyers, a mere two days after he suggested he could be looking into the idea. Appearing in an interview earlier, when asked about changing who pays stamp duty to save first-time buyers paying any tax, he had said, "I'm looking at various options. I'm a low-tax guy. I want to see simpler taxes."
The statement prompted several warnings suggesting it could hit older people who are planning to downsize to smaller homes, which could be problematic with the Conservative party's core voters going into an election.
After the murmurs his statement prompted, Javid tweeted, "More speculation about stamp duty this morning. To be clear, I never said to the Times I was planning to put it on sellers, and I wouldn't support that. I know from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government that we need bold measures on housing, but this isn't one of them." The idea was promoted by the AAT, an accountancy and tax industry group that said it had met Boris Johnson to discuss the proposal earlier in the summer and had had an exchange of correspondence with the chancellor.
Javid is due to come forward with a one-year review of departmental spending in the next few weeks, in a move that may give away funding for schools, hospitals and the police before an election.
