The Evening Standard published three scathing letters on the subject of the proposed reduction in Stamp Duty Land Tax "to help hard-pressed first time buyers get on the property ladder", including mine:
There is no doubt about it, a stamp duty cut will feed directly into higher prices, as a seller can increase the price by the amount of the stamp duty reduction, leaving the first time buyer no better off. Exactly the same has happened with Help to Buy, which the large builders have admitted is the main reason for their recent profitability.
Rather than pumping ever more money into the private land market, we would be better served if Help to Buy was scrapped and stamp duty and regressive Council Tax were replaced with a flat Land Value Tax, which is both progressive and efficient.
Mark Wadsworth, Young People's Party
Wednesday, 18 October 2017
Reader's Letter Of The Day
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4 comments:
Could they not have found some letters supporting a stamp duty bung without a corresponding tax to prevent prices rising???? Londoners are getting too smart to fall for this nonsense it appears :-)
Nitpick.
I would have replaced "progressive" with "equitable", though I understand that what most people think as progressive isn't.
I can't help but imagine George Osborne sat in his office reading your blog now.
M, :-)
BJ, my original sentence was " we would be better served if Help to Buy were scrapped and the progressive but inefficient stamp duty and regressive Council Tax were replaced in full with a flat Land Value Tax, which is both progressive and efficient."
SL, I'm sure he's a Georgist at heart. Only he doesn't have a heart.
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