Dear Chancellor,
I know you have some competing issues to consider at the moment, not least of which is finding the resources to meet ‘Maybots’ NHS largesse of £20billion. Nevertheless, for pity’s sake, you must do something about the distorting effect of the existing Stamp Duty regime on the UK Residential Property Market.
Whilst the SDLT changes may have been a laudable aim of the former Chancellor Osborne, to slow the property market down, thereby protecting the housing stock, the measures he used were closer to ‘stingers’ than they were to ‘sleeping policeman’.