Shapps: Govt has no plans to reform stamp duty

Housing minister Grant Shapps says the Government has no immediate plans to reform stamp duty.

Shapps was asked at the Building Societies Association’s annual mortgage seminar yesterday if there were any plans to reform the “slab” system of stamp duty, with the thresholds set at £125,000, £250,000, £500,000 and £1m.

However, there is currently a first-time buyer stamp duty holiday for purchases up to £250,000 until March 25, 2012.

Critics of stamp duty argue the slab system distorts the market and should instead be based on a more incremental structure.

Shapps said: “Stamp duty, it is true to say, does have a big impact on the market. There is not anything immediately in the pipeline on this but I can say it is something I am always actively looking at and always speaking to my colleagues in the Government and Treasury to see how this would best be done.”