Labour "scraps first time buyer stamp duty"

In a dramatic intervention in the sales market, Labour says it will scrap stamp duty for first time buyer purchases of properties valued up to £300,000.

The announcement, made this morning in an exclusive story in the Financial Times, comes after a weekend when Labour set out plans for rent caps in line with inflation and longer private rental tenancies.

Stamp duty is currently payable on homes with a value above £125,000. It is charged at two per cent for the first £125,000 after that, and the rate then goes up to five per cent.

So a first-time-buyer purchasing a property for £150,000 would save £500. If the property was sold for £250,000, they would save £2,500.

Labour leader Ed Miliband will today say: “It is simply too expensive for so many young people to buy a home today, saving up for the deposit, paying the fees and having enough left over for the stamp duty. So we’re going to act so we can transform the opportunities for young working people in our country. For the first three years of the next Labour government, we will abolish stamp duty for all first time buyers of homes under £300,000.”

Labour will also insist that developers agree to give first-time-buyers a chance to purchase homes as a condition of the planning permission they need to build them.

“There’s nothing more British than the dream of home ownership. But for so many young people today that dream is fading with more people than ever renting when they want to buy, new properties being snapped up before local people get a look-in, young families wondering if this country will ever work for them. That is the condition of Britain today, a modern housing crisis which only a Labour government will tackle” Miliband will say.