A QUINTET of leading Scottish property law firms has called on Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, to freeze stamp duty in an effort to boost the flagging housing market.
The ELPG group – which is made up of firms Warners, the Lints Partnership, Neilsons, Drummond Miller and Leslie Deans – has handed in a petition to Darling at his constituency office in Edinburgh urging him to consider either freezing all payments or
dropping the first £125,000 tier of stamp duty.
Leslie Deans, senior partner of Leslie Deans & Co, said that it was vital that the Chancellor of the Exchequer considered a complete stamp duty freeze to help revitalise Scotland's property market.
He said: "Compared to the rest of the UK, Scotland's property market is remaining resilient but we cannot just count on that continuing for the foreseeable future.
"First-time buyers are becoming increasingly reluctant to purchase a property and we have far more people selling than buying at the moment."
The last time a stamp duty freeze was implemented was in 1992 during a dramatic slow-down in the UK property market.
The tax is currently charged at 1 per cent on homes between £125,000 and £250,000, 3 per cent between £250,000 and £500,000 and 4 per cent over £500,000.
In a separate move, upmarket estate agent Savills called on the government to either exempt first-time buyers or levy the tax on the seller rather than the buyer.
It said: "We recommend the latter, although it could be seen as politically dangerous, opening the back door to tax on capital gains from property as it were."
