Ministers should scrap stamp duty on residential home purchases to help older people downsize, a think-tank has urged.
Policy Exchange said the £14billion tax stagnates the property market by penalising retirees looking to sell large homes.
Former prime minister Liz Truss cut stamp duty for home buyers in September and Rishi Sunak kept the measure. But Policy Exchange found people are still disincentivised from moving, leaving elderly couples living in partially empty houses. An average home would attract a stamp duty bill of £2,3000 while a £524,000 house - the average in London - would attract a bill of £13,700. Research from buying agency Ludgrove estimated cutting stamp duty by a third would boost property sales by 40 per cent and bring in £1.4billion in tax revenue.
Daily Mail