Tory Plans For stamp Duty 25/11/2004

First-time buyers may be exempted from stamp duty if they pay less than £250,000 for their first home, shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin has suggested. It is one of several options which the Tories are considering to make the duty fairer for house buyers.

According to Mr Letwin, since 1997, the average the first-time buyer has had to pay £1,170 in stamp duty and this average increases to £8,000 on top of house prices in London. He also said that the average housebuyer paid no stamp duty when Labour came to power that year.

Another option, which would also relieve much of the duty, is to double the threshold at which the duty becomes payable - from £60,000 to £120,000. This would remove most first-time buyers from the duty in many parts of the country, but not in London and the South-East, where the average first-time purchase is about £160,000.

The amount of money raised from stamp duty on residential property since 1997 has risen from £675 million to £3.79 billion.