In response to reports that stamp duty will be slashed to help first-time buyers get a foot on the housing ladder under plans being drawn up by the government, Stephen Penlington, general manager of Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, said: "Not before time if this is true...but let's see how far they go. We have been pressing the government to change this unfair tax for years.
"It is not only unfair, particularly to first time buyers, but the slab system way in which it is levied at the highest applicable rate on the whole of the purchase price distorts the whole housing market, particularly around the stamp duty thresholds.
"The amount of stamp duty paid by homeowners has more than quadrupled in the last five years to more than £3.5 billion annually. The decision by the Chancellor not to raise the £60,000 threshold means that in excess of an extra 150,000 homebuyers were liable to pay the tax last year alone.
"The failure of successive governments to raise the threshold for more than a decade means that it is now a particular burden for first-time buyers and must be abolished for them - or at least doubled to have any meaningful impact. We recommend that the thresholds are adjusted to take account of inflation since they were introduced, that first- time buyers are automatically excluded from paying this tax and that future tax allowances and thresholds should rise automatically in line with house price inflation."
