There has been an almost deafening silence from Grant Shapps and Eric Pickles over the dropping of the Tory manifesto pledge to raise the stamp duty threshold.
Our guest writer is Roy Skates
The Conservatives have made great play today over their plans to scrap home improvement packs (HIPs) – yet there has been an almost deafening silence from housing minister Grant Shapps and communities secretary Eric Pickles over the dropping of the Tory manifesto pledge to raise the stamp duty threshold, which, like their pledge to scrap the Human Rights Act has been kicked into the long grass with another ‘review’.
The Tory manifesto clearly states (page 74) that:
“We will permanently raise the stamp duty threshold to £250,000 for first-time buyers”
While the coalition programme (page 12) merely says:
“We will review the effectiveness of the raising of the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers.”
On HIPs, shadow housing minister John Healey said the announcement highlighted the limits the “shoddy coalition”‘s lack of concern. He told Left Foot Forward:
“The Tories have talked of little else but HIPs over the past few years, and this announcement merely highlights the limits of their ambition and concern – pleasing estate agents rather than supporting first time buyers.
“And with the Housing Minister no longer sat in Cabinet, we’ve seen quickly how housing is a lower order issue for this shoddy Coalition.”
Yesterday, Radio 4’s “Moneybox live” programme revealed serious concerns among estate agents ahead of the government’s announcement today, and that the market risked stagnating; there was also concern that the government may be overreacting in scrapping HIPs without full consultation.
14 Responses to “Scrapping of HIPs masks Tory u-turn on stamp duty”
House Of Twits
RT @leftfootfwd Scrapping of HIPs masks Tory u-turn on stamp duty: http://bit.ly/dgVGyC
Andy Sutherland
RT @leftfootfwd: Scrapping of HIPs masks Tory u-turn on stamp duty: http://bit.ly/dgVGyC
John
Good. People who can afford a £200k house don’t need a tax cut – and in any case the figures from every stamp duty change in the last three decades show that the benefit of cutting that tax goes to sellers, who put the price up, not to buyers, who pay the same overall.
You want to sort out housing, build more decent homes for affordable rent. At least as many homes as extra people through births>deaths and net migration, for a decade. Sale prices will find their own level once supply and demand are more balanced and interest rates return to normal.
Rashidi Abu Bakhar
Good to see the influence of the Lib Dems at work here, no? As John says, this was a poor tax break. Progressives should be applauding.
Harry Barnes
As the closing date for Labour MPs to nominate candidates for the Labour Leadership Election has now been extended to 9th June, two further measures need to be taken.
First, those Labour MPs who have come out in support of specific candidates should withdraw their endorsements until they have consulted the views within the Movement, especially those opinions of the Constituency Parties who have just worked to return them to the Commons.
Secondly, Constituency Parties should set up open meetings for their membership to discuss (a) what they see as the way forward for the Labour Party and (b) to take a vote on whom they favour to become leader. Those Constituency Parties who have Labour MPs should arrange these meetings so that their MP can be in attendance. In these cases meetings are likely to need to fall between 28th and 30th May or 4th to 6th June. It should not be the intention of meetings to instruct their MP on how to act, but for each MP to absorb the ideas and perferences of the membership whilst fully participating in the discussions. All Constituency Parties (whether or not they have Labour MPs) should be encouraged to send their views on ideas and preferences to the NEC of the Labour Party. The NEC findings should then be forwarded to the Parliamentary Labour Party who should hold a meeting to consider these by 8th June.