Key Takeaway: Stamp Duty scrapped immediately for all first-time homebuyers up to £300,000
Before the Budget announcement, everyone was pinning hopes that Philip Hammond will use today’s speech to bring down the curtain on the age of austerity and address Britain’s housing crisis which has led to a slump in housing transactions of approximately 35 per cent since the financial crisis.
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These are the key take-aways from his speech today.
Housing boost
The chancellor has committed to £44bn for housing through capital funding, loans and guarantees. That follows reports that Communities Secretary Sajid Javid had pushed for an extra £50bn to tackle the housing shortage. Hammond says the funds will include an extra £2.7bn to more than double the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Stamp duty scrapped for first-time buyers
From today, first-time homebuyers will no longer have to pay stamp duty for properties of up to £300,000. It will also be available on the first £300,000 of the purchase price of properties up to £500,000.
Action on rough sleepers:
The chancellor says it “cannot be right” to leave properties empty “when so many are desperate for a place to live”. Therefore, local authorities will now have the power to charge a 100 per cent council tax premium on empty properties. And they will also establish a homelessness taskforce in a bid to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it by 2027.
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