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Reeves triggers property market ‘chaos’ with stamp duty crackdown

The stamp duty threshold uplift was launched by Liz Truss during her brief spell in Downing Street. The change was one of few tax cuts from Kwasi Kwarteng’s ill-fated mini Budget that were kept by Rishi Sunak. 

Mr Sunak later pledged during the election to make the £425,000 stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers permanent. 

Without the stamp duty cuts, buyers of an average home costing £300,830 will be hit with an additional £2,500 in taxes. House purchasers in the regions of the country with higher house prices, such as south-west England, will see the biggest increases.

Lucian Cook, of estate and letting agent Savills, said: “If the Government is going to deliver its ambitious house-building targets, it will have to provide more, not less, of an incentive for first-time buyer activity. 

“This is especially the case in London and the South East, where higher house prices make saving for a deposit especially daunting and where buyers will have benefited the most from the lowering of stamp duty thresholds.”

Ms Reeves intends to raise £35bn in the Budget on October 30 and is reportedly considering a slew of changes to inheritance tax

A government spokesman said: “We do not comment on speculation around tax changes outside of fiscal events.”