Chancellor Rishi Sunak is planning to exempt most home buyers from paying stamp duty in a bid to kick-start Britain’s economic recovery. Sunak will reveal plans this week to lift the threshold at which people start paying stamp duty from £125,000 to as much as £500,000. The increase in the threshold is a temporary measure intended to stimulate the housing market. He will make the announcement as part of several measures to support the economy, including a temporary VAT cut for pubs, restaurants and cafés to help to protect 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality sector.
He will also reveal plans to give companies £1,000 for each apprentice they take and a multi-billion pound “green jobs” package as part of an attempt to avoid mass unemployment. A further £100 million will be invested in traineeships for young people to help them find work. The government earlier announced a £1.87 billion package of loans and grants for the arts sector to save theatres, museums, galleries and music venues from closure.
The “stamp duty holiday” are designed to help first-time buyers and would particularly benefit those in “red wall” seats that the Tories won from Labour in the election last December. Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that he wants to overhaul stamp duty, describing it as a “huge problem”. omebuyers pay no stamp duty on the first £125,000, 2 per cent up to £250,000 and 5 per cent on the value of the property up to £925,000. Sunak is considering increasing the threshold to £500,000 for a temporary period, which government sources said could be up to a year. On an average house purchase of £232,000 in Britain, this represents a saving of £2,140.
