“We are hoping that the Chancellor will give support to both borrowers and savers next Wednesday.
“The reality is that the last three years of very low bank base rates and relatively high inflation have had some unintended consequences.
“Whilst it has been a boon to many existing mortgage borrowers, it has effectively delivered a kick in the teeth to savers, and reduced the flow of mortgage funds for new borrowers too.
“It hasn’t been easy for businesses, including brokers either.
“Whilst we don’t expect any imminent changes to the bank rate from the Bank of England, and frankly don’t want any sudden shocks anyway, we do believe that the Chancellor can do some things to help the challenging markets.
“For borrowers, we continue to push for a change to the slab structure of stamp duty as it continues to cause market distortions which are particularly unhelpful in the current fragile market.
“The Chancellor could remove distortions by charging stamp duty on a marginal system similar to income tax and rates could be set to ensure that there is no net effect on tax revenue.
“We are convinced that the planned removal of the stamp duty holiday for first time buyers on properties of £250,000 or less is also unhelpful.
“Taking something away is always more negative and we are already seeing a change in consumer sentiment with an increase from 10% in December 2011 to 12% in March 2012 of GB adults citing stamp duty as a barrier to home purchase.
“This is the first time since March 2010 that this figure has increased in the BSA’s quarterly Property Tracker.
“We all know that deficit reduction is still top of the Government’s agenda, but these measures would help millions of consumers a little, and consumers who feel better tend to spend more which can’t hurt the growth prospects of UK Plc.”
