2
Dec
Government under pressure to extend stamp duty holiday
A group of Labour backbenchers are putting pressure on Gordon Brown
and Alistair Darling to extend the stamp duty holiday beyond
December 31st.
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the
Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA) have welcomed the
Early Day Motion put forward by eight MPs in the House of
Commons.
Chief executive of the NAEA Peter Bolton-King urged the government
to reconsider the stamp duty deadline: "If the stamp duty exemption
is not extended at this fragile point of recovery, we fear that
months of work will instantly unravel causing a great deal of
damage to the market."
In November, a number of industry associations lent their support
to a campaign, which was set up by the NAEA and ARLA, calling on
Westminster to urgently review stamp duty and modernise the
tax.
The 1808 coalition is named after the year that stamp duty was
first introduced on property sales in the UK. The new threshold of
£175,000 came into force in September 2008 as a temporary
measure to stimulate the housing market during the recession.
