The Chancellor missed an opportunity in yesterday’s Autumn Statement to deliver  meaningful reforms to stamp duty that could help older homeowners and boost activity across the housing market, according to some property experts. 

JLM Mortgage Network group director Sebastian Murphy said he was disappointed that there were no reductions to stamp duty for those looking to downsize.

He accused the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt of “missing an open goal” on this issue – saying this would cause a ripple of activity in the housing market and boost supply of much needed family homes, benefiting younger families too.

He was also critical of plans to extend permitted development rights — to allow homes to be split into two flats — saying this won’t increase the type of housing the UK desperately needs. 

“We have called for a stamp duty holiday for older homeowners who want to downsize but are put off by the large amount of taxation they would need to pay, but nothing of the kind has been proposed,” he adds.

“Getting the right people into the right homes would help a large number of people who feel they can’t move at the moment. We need greater levels of supply desperately but a proposal which might allow homes to be split into two flats seems a retrograde measure which doesn’t tackle the types of homes people need or want to buy. There has been a lot of expectation about what might be announced today and this feels like a real damp squib for housing and mortgage market stakeholders.”

However, there was more qualified support for the proposed changes to permitted development rights, particularly from the building sector. 

The Federation of Master Builders chief executive Brian Berry says: “Measures to reform the way local authorities process planning applications However, substantial increases in funding for local authority planning departments are needed if we are to see real progress.”

He adds: “There were some surprising outcomes, like the changes to permitted development rights, which will bring work for house builders and the repair, maintenance, and improvement sector. 

“Buried in the details is additional support for housing associations to deliver energy efficiency improvements. This support should also be rolled out to the owner occupier sector to help improve the UK’s leaky housing stock”.

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