AUTUMN STATEMENT: George Osborne has decided stamp duty tax relief for first-time buyers will end on March 24.
The exemption covers first-time purchases of up to £250,000. The chancellor said discounts for council housing tenants wanting to buy their own homes would be increased to up to 50%. The government would use the money it received for building new affordable homes. Osborne confirmed a mortgage indemnity scheme to help up to 100,000 people struggling to get onto the housing ladder and to stimulate housebuilding. A £400m investment fund will be used to kick-start building project to produce 16,000 homes on sites that have planning permission but have not, until now, been deemed economically viable to build on. “Build-now, pay-later deals” have been agreed to construct 100,000 homes. Savills said official estimates about the housing market the government had used could lead to a £6bn black hole in tax receipts. The estate agent questioned whether the effects of the mortgage indemnity scheme would be as profound as the government hoped and the Office of Budget Responsibility predicted. Housebuilders, however, rose sharply on the stock market on news of housing measures in the Autumn Statement.
30/11/11 Times (Autumn Statement) 2, 10, 12
Financial Times 1, 2, 5, 8
Daily Telegraph 7, B6
Independent 2
Guardian 1, 7
