Chancellor may allow stamp duty deferment
Package under consideration to revive housing market
Homebuyers may be allowed to defer payment of stamp duty in an attempt to revive the housing market, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, disclosed yesterday.
Mr Darling said he was considering a package of measures to help stop the slide in property values, which threatens over a million homeowners with the prospect of negative equity. He refused to be drawn further as no conclusions on the content of the package had yet been reached. An announcement will be made in the autumn.
However he admitted that the current slowdown was "far more profound and will be far more prolonged" than seemed likely a year ago. His comment came as the Office for National Statistics said the UK economy may grow by only 0.1% in the second quarter, putting it on the verge of a recession.
Other figures released yesterday show a 40% rise in home repossessions in the first quarter of 2008 compared with a year earlier, and a 15% rise in the number of loans three months or more in arrears.
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