The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown caused uncertainty for those buying and selling residential property, resulting in a significant decrease in transactions. After this petition went live, the Government decided that the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Summer Economic Update was the right time to introduce a temporary Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) cut to encourage and maintain confidence in the property market. In turn, this will keep people in work, create jobs and support the wider economy.

This temporary cut increases the starting threshold of residential SDLT from £125,000 to £500,000 from the 8 July 2020 until 31 March 2021.

As is typical for many tax policy announcements made at fiscal events, the change to SDLT was effective from the day of announcement. Any changes to extend the relief retrospectively would inevitably lead to borderline cases for purchases completed at an earlier point. It is for this reason that the effective date for such changes is typically the day on which the announcement is made. The Government currently has no plans to back-date this change to 1st March.

This change will mean that nearly 90% people buying a main home outside of London will no longer pay Stamp Duty, with a maximum savings of £15,000.

SDLT continues to be an important source of government revenue, raising several billion pounds each year to help pay for the essential services the government provides. All tax policy is kept under review and the views expressed to us are considered carefully as part of that process.

HM Treasury

This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/310695)