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Some areas spending fortunes on stamp duty
31 October 2007 10:30
A small proportion of areas account for a high proportion of Britain's stamp duty revenues, new figures have indicated, while the thresholds remain overly low.
Roughly one in 20 local authorities (LAs) pay more than quarter of the UK's stamp duty, Halifax's findings indicated, with Kensington & Chelsea the biggest contributor with £235 million, while outside the capital it was Elmsbridge in Surrey with £68 million.
Regionally, Northern Ireland and the south-west experienced the biggest rises in stamp duty revenue at 126 and 121 per cent respectively, while Northern Ireland also accounted for 22 of the 24 LAs where stamp duty payments more than doubled.
Despite house prices rising 191 per cent since the £250,000 and £500,000 higher duty thresholds were introduced in 1997, these have stayed static, Halifax's report stated, while if the lowest threshold was raised in line with prices it would be £193,000, not £125,000.
Chief economist Martin Ellis noted that there had been some sharp rises in stamp duty revenues over the past financial year, with one in seven LAs seeing the amount homeowners pay in their area increase by at least 50 per cent.
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