February 2024

Former housing minister Robert Jenrick has voiced his support for a stamp duty cut to provide a “boost” to housebuilding and the wider housing market.

He told the Commons: “A first responsibility for government is to fix the housing crisis that young people didn’t cause.”

He said the Conservative Party had “dragged housebuilding” to the “highest levels since 1987” and said Labour “left it at its lowest level since the 1920s”.

He added: “Housebuilding is weakening. We need to do more. Will (the prime minister) consider using the budget to do as he and I did together during the pandemic and cut stamp duty to boost housing starts, to reignite the economy and to support thousands of businesses across our country?”

The prime minister made it clear that said tax decisions are for the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and insisted the government has delivered an increase in housebuilding.

In response, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak said: “Since 2010 we have delivered two and a half million additional homes, on track to deliver a million just in this Parliament and help over 850,000 families into homeownership through schemes such as help-to-buy and right-to-buy.

“Obviously, tax decisions are a matter for the Chancellor. But I would point out that our existing stamp duty relief for first-time buyers ensures the vast majority of first-time buyers in our country pay absolutely no stamp duty.”

Jeremy Hunt has publicly warned that the tax cuts set to be unveiled in the Spring Budget will not be as large as the ones announced in November.