The Northern Research Group (NRG) – backed by over 50 Conservative MPs have written a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, making a number of demands, including the extension of the stamp duty land tax (SDLT) holiday.
The NRG has echoed similar worries to other bodies stating that families and businesses face a series of cliff edges over the coming months as existing support programmes come to an end.
The NRG says:
“Extensions are necessary to protect families and individuals caught up in the economic fallout from the pandemic.”
Seemingly, this is just another needle in the Chancellor’s side as an online petition calling for the extension of the SDLT holiday nears 110,000 at the time of writing. This means that this petition will now be debated in Parliament as it has breached the 100,000 signature threshold.
However, there are some who believe that it’ll only be a matter of time before the Chancellor announces an extension.
Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman, wrote in his column yesterday:
“Contrary to some reports [Sunak] is considering an extension to stamp duty cuts.”
Mark Hayward, Chief Policy Advisor at Propertymark, has welcomed the NRG’s stamp duty stance.
“The [housing market] boom, caused by the stamp duty holiday, has been hugely beneficial for the housing market; however, the stamp duty cliff edge on the March 31 could cause thousands of sales to fall at the final hurdle and have a knock on and drastic effect on the housing market which has recovered well from the Covid slump.
“We support the Northern Research Group’s call to the Chancellor to extend the stamp duty cut, and we have been calling on Government for some time to rethink the March 31 deadline, so pressure on the system can be released to allow transactions to complete and avoid a disorderly and distressing period for movers and businesses throughout the market.”
2 responses
As someone facing this I am close to a total breakdown. Although the Memorandum of Sale was issued end of October. The searches were only applied for 4/1/2021 ( don’t ask ) Local Authority are quoting 45 days = 8th March. Cutting it very fine and possible 5 chain collapse
We are elderly, shielded and disabled and as a consequence cannot safely live in our present two story house. Luckily our home sold quickly last October and we purchased a bungalow STC.
Massive delays in Conveyancing, local searches and even hiring a surveyor, both for ourselves and for our buyer, have meant, four months after agreeing sale and purchase prices, that exchange of contracts is still a distance away.
Our personal predicament is compounded as, due to lockdown restrictions, we cannot dispose of unwanted furniture or get outside help in moving. We are due to be vaccinated this week and feel scared that pressures to complete before the deadline may in fact cause an unsafe moving process and we end up contracting the virus.
We signed the petition weeks ago and now that it has over 100,000 signatures, hope the debate happens before it’s too late. or the Government sees sense and extends the deadline at least for those already struggling to complete from 2020!