Ed Balls calls for two-year first-time buyer Stamp Duty holiday
Shadow Chancellor calls for Stamp Duty to be ditched for two years for first-time buyers in bid to boost the housing market and economy.
Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, wants to see Stamp Duty ditched for first-time buyers for two years.
Speaking in Manchester at the Labour Party conference, Balls will say that such a holiday – coupled with 100,000 new affordable homes – will get the housing market moving and stimulate the economy.
The Stamp Duty holiday and new homes would be paid for with the money raised from the sale of the 4G mobile spectrum.
The Government previously implemented a Stamp Duty holiday for first-time buyers on properties worth up to £250,000, which came to an end back in April.
What do you think? Is this a good idea? Will this stimulate the housing market and the economy? Or could the £4 billion raised by selling off the 4G spectrum be better spent elsewhere? Let me know your thoughts in the comment box below.
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Labour shadow chancellor proposes a tax reduction. Strange how that only happens when the word 'shadow' is included. Labour's core attributes of high spending, high taxing (but not high enough, hence high borrowing too) and incompetence in running the economy are what got us into this mess.
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Another ill thought idea by New Labour that inflates the housing market more rather than letting normalise to an affordable level. The relaxed money-creating/-lending and goading it along is what has created the current situation, so what a great idea to keep it going - petty vote fetching blabbering by a clearly competent financial expert.
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The problem with the above discussions is that noone is interested in balancing the books (with the possible exception of andrewjameshowar). Sorry andrew the 4G money wont reduce the national debt, it will only reduce the rate of increase. The national debt has been run up over many years by over generous spending, mostly on Social Security Benefits and the NHS. The economy is simply not big enough to produce the income to support these monster money pits. Either some real cuts are made (and I don't mean the pifling ones made by the present government) or we need some fairly unpleasant tax increases. Taxing the rich until they leave the country wont do it, there simply aren't enough of them. Has anyone in government got any idea what we do if one day noone wants to lend us any more money? The country would be bankrupt. It probably is already.
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09 October 2012