Conservative former minister Robert Jenrick has called on Rishi Sunak to cut stamp duty to provide a “boost” to housebuilding.
The Prime Minister said tax decisions are for the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and insisted the Government has delivered an increase in housebuilding.
The exchange took place in the House of Commons during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Mr Sunak used the session to attempt to draw a distinction between his stated ambition to reduce the tax burden and a Labour position he described as “confused” on the issue.
Mr Jenrick told the Commons: “A first responsibility for Government is to fix the housing crisis that young people didn’t cause.”
He said the Conservative Party had “dragged housebuilding” to the “highest levels since 1987” and said Labour “left it at its lowest level since the 1920s”.
But he said: “Housebuilding is weakening. We need to do more. Will (the Prime Minister) consider using the budget to do as he and I did together during the pandemic and cut stamp duty to boost housing starts, to reignite the economy and to support thousands of businesses across our country?”
Mr Sunak responded: “Since 2010 we have delivered two and a half million additional homes, on track to deliver a million just in this Parliament and help over 850,000 families into homeownership through schemes such as help-to-buy and right-to-buy.
“Obviously, tax decisions are a matter for the Chancellor. But I would point out that our existing stamp duty relief for first-time buyers ensures the vast majority of first-time buyers in our country pay absolutely no stamp duty.”
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned further tax cuts could risk the Government’s ability to invest in the NHS and other vital services.
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The Chancellor is understood to have warned the Cabinet that opportunities for tax cuts in the Budget are likely to be smaller than they were in the autumn statement, in part owing to “major structural weaknesses” in the UK economy linked to low productivity.
Last week, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) director Paul Johnson said those looking to form the next government should be “honest” about trade-offs and “if they are promising tax cuts, let’s hear where the spending cuts will fall”.
The Stamp Duty Land Tax applies to people who buy a property over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.
