The Treasury has dismissed proposals for a new Stamp Duty on house sellers in addition to the current Stamp Duty on house purchasers.
Barry McCormick, the newly appointed chief economist at the Department of Health, told The Daily Telegraph that he favoured a tax on sellers, which would increase its chargeable rate the longer the homeowner stayed put. The aim would be to encourage flexibility in the housing market and free up homes in London and the South East for key workers.
However, the Treasury has since denied that the proposal is being considered.
A Treasury spokesman said: ‘The Treasury is the department within Government responsible for taxation issues and the Treasury is definitely not looking at this as a tax.’
• There is growing concern that public services in the South East are suffering because workers are unable to afford to buy property in the region. The Housing Corporation, the body which disperses money to housing associations, is expected to begin a house-building prog-ramme, following Chancellor Gordon Brown’s three-year Spending Review.
Expansion would be focused in those areas with good existing transport links to London and includes Milton Keynes, Ashford in Kent, Stansted in Essex and the Thames Gateway ‘ expanding London out to the East.
